by Susan Kelley
The thin walls of the building only muffled the curses and shouts from outside. At the top of the stairs to the left a door closed off that entire end of the second floor. The door was unlocked, opening into a plush lounging area with soft chairs and fancy decorative items that appeared to have no use. He slipped around the furnishings and through the next door, finding a bathing room on one side and a kitchen on the other. The last room abutted the front wall and contained a large bed on one side and a work desk on the other.
Vin searched the desk and briefly considered trying to break into the AI sitting in the open. The device wasn’t as up to date as Vin’s but it was new enough to have good spying protection. He didn’t have time.
Many medicines required refrigeration so he went back to the kitchen. The cold storage held only food, some of it exotic stuff Vin had never eaten. He left the suite of rooms and jogged toward the door to the right of the stairs. Through it he found a hallway that split a series of offices that connected to smaller living quarters. The very last room had the universal red cross of a medical office.
Vin burst through the door, knowing by now someone had noticed the sabotage on the mine rigging. The medical suite had four rooms, one with treatment tables, one for the doctor to sleep in though it looked unused, one set up for surgery, and finally the last one with supplies. Vin searched the cold storage first and found many things Emma could use but none labeled to fight unknown alien infections. Just as he decided to search elsewhere, he saw a thin box pushed to the back of the bottom shelf. He knelt down and pulled it out. When he opened the lid, he found four small bottles surrounded by molded cushions.
He plucked one out and read the chemical name of a powerful antiviral drug. He’d been inoculated with it years ago. Voices called out commands outside the thin wall, ordering a search. Vin returned the bottle to its slot and closed up the case. He slipped it inside his armor, against his stomach where it wouldn’t get broken. He left the second floor with more caution than when he entered. The scattered equipment again provided cover. Near the far door someone had flung an oil stained coat on a table alongside a pair of ragged gloves.
Vin paused long enough to pull the jacket on. Though made for someone taller and wider than him, it would cover his weapons belt.
A man Vin assumed was the Underboss barked orders at the north end of town. Men shouldered long poles in an attempt to brace the tilting structure. The armed guards weren’t in sight.
Vin crossed the street without the frantic workers noticing him. Once he reached the cover of the building he started to run but slid to a stop at the back corner. Four armed men fought their way through the brush as if a saboteur hid under a shrub. He expected a similar group searched behind the other building. He didn’t have time to wait for them to pass and though his high tech camouflage could get him past them it would take too long.
Vin ran back to the front of the workers barracks and entered the first door. The set up inside mirrored the other building. He took the steps three at a time, not pausing until he came to the top floor. A ladder attached to the back wall and led Vin to a trapdoor to the roof. He scampered up it and opened the top to peek over the edge. The guards didn’t glance upward, their attention focused on the ground.
He laid the door flat on the roof and slid out, staying low. His recent wounds cried out a protest as he crawled to the middle of the building where he stood up. A few deep breaths beat the pain back into submission. He crouched enough so the guards couldn’t see him and ran the length of the building, shedding the worker’s jacket along the way.
When he reached the other end, Vin pulled the remote from his belt and programmed in an approach flight for his hover. He didn’t want the guards to shoot it down so set it to fly to him on an arc beyond the reach of their limited range weapons.
The guards started fighting their way through the brush toward the jungle when they heard the hover start up. They didn’t see the craft until it flew into the open behind them. It zoomed up to the roof, hesitating for a moment as he leaped on. Once aboard Vin guided it with hand controls.
The whistle of gas powered rounds flew over Vin’s head. He turned from the open field and flew over the street. Too much chaos remained near the mine entrance for anyone to notice him. Vin gained altitude and flew over the heads of the workers. He gained the cover of the jungle and then turned south with all speed.
* * * *
Emma bathed Julie’s body with alcohol, an old Earth treatment to bring down fever. The little girl had had two convulsions in the past hour. Cindy Denton, Julie’s poor mother, had run home to see to Billy and his father.
Julie no longer tossed or moaned in the depths of her fever. Her tiny body sprawled slack and unresponsive as if the life had already fled the cover of her physical self. Emma feared the girl’s soul was correct that death had won the battle.
Moe had promised to return when he finished searching the settlement for more of the poison pellets. The cursed things, pink and bright, had been designed to attract children. Vannie had stopped by to let her know they’d found dozens more of the foul things along the east wall. Only good luck had prevented more children from finding them.
Emma brushed Julie’s hair back from her forehead. Dried sweat left the fine blonde hair stiff and sticky. Despite the continued IV fluids, Julie had stopped sweating after the last seizure. Finding an antidote had been their only hope, but Julie had weakened quicker than expected. Even if Vin didn’t get caught and managed to find the medicine, it would be too late for the little girl. Emma blinked back tears. She didn’t want Cindy to see them when she returned.
The cool air of evening swept around Emma’s legs as the door opened behind her. Cindy had certainly hurried to return.
“Is she dead?”
Emma turned so quick she lost her balance at Vin’s question. He caught her arms and steadied her.
“You’re back.” Emma touched his face but his attire drew her gaze down his body. Body armor, of a kind and quality she’d never seen.
Vin undid a seam in the side of his outfit and withdrew a thin case. “I think this is what you need.”
Emma had a million questions, but they could wait. The package held four precious vials of antidote. After reading the instruction on one of the bottles, she used a needle to extract just one dose. She fed it into the IV tube, muttering a prayer as if flowed into Julie’s vein.
Vin took up the sponge and started rubbing alcohol on Julie’s bare arm.
Emma found another sponge and joined him. With Vin there, the treatment no longer seemed so hopeless. “Did you have trouble finding it?”
“No.”
“Did you have to kill anyone?” Too late to call it back.
Vin didn’t look up from Julie. “No.”
Emma sighed with relief. At least she didn’t have that guilt to deal with. “You didn’t get injured? Further injured?”
“No.”
“Did anyone see you? How did you find it? Did anyone chase after you? Do they know you’re from here?”
Vin paused and frowned at her. “No. It was in the medical office. No. Probably.”
Emma slapped her sponge down on the table, prepared to vent all her frustration at Vin, but then Julie moaned. The little girl rolled her head from side to side. Emma reached out to comfort her and touched her wet cheek. Moisture beaded all over Julie’s skin, soaking the thin gown she wore. “Her fever is breaking. Vin, her fever is breaking.”
She moved without thought, throwing her arms around him. She grabbed his face and kissed him again and again. She caught his lips and held him to her. The armor he wore pressed against the length of her body and drove home the danger of what he’d done. Without being asked, without hesitation and without failing.
Vin pushed Emma back and a few seconds later the door opened.
“Julie!” Cindy Denton gasped.
Emma took Cindy’s hand and led her to the bedside. “I think she’s turning the corner.”
The first rays of the morning sun bent in through the cheap glass windows when Julie opened her eyes. “Momma, why are you crying?”
Emma joined Cindy in tears and hugs. Cindy couldn’t stop thanking her, but Emma knew that Vin deserved all the gratitude. She intended to make sure everyone knew it, but first she would give him a private thanks.
* * * *
Emma found Vin in his shop, asleep while leaning on one of his work tables. Asleep until she walked in.
Vin sat up and stared at her. His AI unit blinked on the table in front of him, as sleepy looking as its user. “Julie is better?” The roughness in his deep voice reminded her of his recent injuries.
“She is.” Emma walked to his side, hiding a shyness she hadn’t felt with him before. She’d seen him unclothed, yet this moment seemed more intimate. Perhaps because of what they’d been through together. They’d battled death and won. She pulled up another work stool and sat beside him. “How are you doing?”
“How?” Vin looked at the AI screen. “I’m using this to tap into….”
She put her hand on his arm. “I mean how do you feel? Your wounds?”
“Oh. I think they’re healing.”
She took his hand and stood up. “Let’s go up to your room where I can check them.”
“I felt no tearing or bleeding.” But he let her lead him.
The steps reminded Emma that she’d been on her feet for a full day with only brief rests when her legs wouldn’t hold her anymore. Before they reached the top, Vin helped her with a strong hand under her elbow.
He touched a switch on the wall and a bright overhead light came on. His body armor hung neatly from a hook on the wall, leading Emma to wonder where it had been before. Vin pulled his gray fitted shirt over his head.
New, smaller bandages had replaced the ones she’d applied. Their haphazard placement told her he’d changed them himself. The image of him twisting and stretching his injured body to treat himself saddened her. Vin needed someone to take care of him. Someone who understood him, at least a little.
He stood with his back to her as she pried off the self-sticking dressings. Though they surely tugged on his half healed wounds, Vin never flinched or made a sound. She touched the smooth unmarked skin in the center of his back to make sure the heat beneath her fingers was his natural temperature and not a sign of infection. The organic skin shield had started to peel in places as new skin grew beneath it. She nudged him into facing her.
The bandages on his front had been applied in better fashion. Seeing the wounds reminded her how close to death he’d come. After she pulled the bandages off, she ran her hands over his ribs and searched for new injuries. “You’re sure you weren’t hurt again?”
He stilled her roving hands by covering them with his. “I only need some sleep, but first I have to finish…..”
She touched his lips to stop him and then took his hand, leading him to the cot. “You’ve done enough for now. Maybe enough for a lifetime. Even super soldiers need to rest.”
He allowed her to push him down on the bed. She kept her hand on his shoulder, enjoying the solid feel of his muscles beneath his fingers. Everything about him was solid. He again covered her hand with his and held hers in place. He stared at her with a look of uncertainty, an emotion she realized was nearly always present in their conversations. At least she recognized his meager emotional cues more often.
“And do amazing doctors also need their rest?” Vin tugged on her hand, surprising her into a yip and a tumble into his arms. He absorbed the impact and fell back onto the cot with her on top of him.
Even in the midst of delighted shock, she worried about his wounds. She scooted to one side of the narrow bed, and Vin stretched out so they faced each other.
Emma ran her hand along Vin’s smooth cheek. Geneticists had discovered how to make men beardless generations ago but it was a choice for most men. Not the Recon Marines. Beards required care, a luxury of men of leisure not marines. Vin’s eyes no longer looked cool to Emma, but cautious and distant. Despite their current intimate position, the distance remained.
The cot permitted only a twitch between them but somehow Vin managed not to touch her along their lengths. So she closed the distance, flinging her trouser clad leg over both of his. It was difficult to think in her current position from any perspective except that of a lonely woman in bed with a beautiful, equally lonely man. But she’d never shared her body with a man purely for physical relief or for emotional forgetfulness. Though the strength of her growing feelings for Vin motivated her, she worried he didn’t feel the same. The psychiatrist part of her knew he carried a wound that still bled inside him. Whatever germinated between them could go no further until she tended that deep injury. “Tell me about Yalo Pango.”
He couldn’t withdraw physically on the narrow cot. She touched his face again, willing him not to pull away any other way.
Vin took her hand from his face and pressed it to his bare chest. His heart beat with slow, strong strokes beneath her palm. “Yalo wasn’t anything like you. She was a soldier, a warrior, strong of body and without your soft heart.”
Emma smiled at him in encouragement, wondering if Vin knew he insulted her.
“It was so easy to understand her. Her duty was first and all like it was for me. But somehow we found a way to have love and duty both for a little while. We married and committed to protection of the Queen of Giroux. Yalo had just found out she was pregnant. We hadn’t told anyone yet, savoring the wonder just between us for a short time. Then Hadrason came to Crevan Four and tried to kill Queen Callie Adell, but Yalo did her duty.”
After he remained silent for a long moment, Emma filled the silence. “She died protecting the queen.”
Vin swallowed. “And our child with her.”
Emma wanted to wrap him in her arms, but she needed him to tell it all. “And then you went searching for revenge.”
He dropped his gaze to her hand he trapped against his chest. “I wanted to kill Hadrason, but it would have been disastrous for my brothers and their chance at a new life. So I struck out on my own, gathered what I needed and started my mission. My brothers captured Hadrason, but the killer earned only a plush prison. Vannie told me he probably still runs his empire of mining using corrupt military leaders and greedy politicians to build his fortune and power. He loves his money.”
Vin’s insight surprised Emma though she doubted he understood all the complex machinations of Hadrason and his ilk. But revenge could be simple. “So you went after his empire?”
“I had a conversation with one of the mine owners Hadrason had forced out a few years ago. He gave me some names. Each person I found after that gave me more.”
“And now my stepfather is the only one left.”
“He went into hiding two months ago. The only lead I had was you and that he was searching for you as I was for him?”
“How did you find me?” Emma knew she had to warn Vin that the admiral might even now be on his way, but she didn’t want to interrupt this moment when he was so open.
“It took me nearly a month. I visited all the planets where Hadrason and the admiral had interests together. Nearly all the mines had satellite settlements like Hovel Port. This was the sixth planet I explored.”
“And ingratiated yourself to us so you could use me as bait to catch the admiral.”
“Ingratiate?” Vin seemed to ponder the word. “I wasn’t searching for gratitude. I wanted to stay close to you so I made myself useful. I thought all I had to do was wait for the admiral to come out of hiding in his search for you.”
“You thought that? You don’t anymore?”
Vin grimaced. “I’m starting to think he’s not smart enough to find you. And I still don’t know why he wants to find you. Does he love you and mis
s you? I don’t understand how this stepfather relationship works. Why are you hiding from him?”
She understood why people answered Vin’s questions when he fixed them with his intense stare. But he wasn’t threatening her, and she wasn’t going to answer his questions. Now wasn’t about her. “Has vengeance eased the pain of losing Yalo and you child?”
He looked down at their hands again. “It’s not over yet.”
“What will you do when it is over?” She’d already guessed that he hadn’t planned beyond revenge.
Vin looked up, over her shoulder staring into nothing. “It depends. I haven’t figured out yet why someone from the mine wants to chase this settlement off and will kill children to do so.”
“So even if you take care of the admiral, you’re going to stay and help Hovel Port?”
“The next attack might kill someone.”
Emma couldn’t find words. How was her training to deal with the convoluted and engrained sense of duty and sacrifice Vin suffered from? Or did he suffer? Perhaps he was blessed with this ancient nobility. The men who had made enemies of the Recon Marines hadn’t understood the soldiers at all. “Hovel Port is lucky to have you.”
She closed the distance between them, freeing her hand from beneath his and reaching up to his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. Despite the grim nature of their conversation, his body was prepared for her. His erection pressed into her most sensitive spot. And she was ready for him.
His lips found hers with a question. She opened her mouth and answered. Their previous chaste kisses hadn’t prepared her for the talent of his lips. His hands slipped under her shirt, touching his skin as lightly as a breeze. The brush of his rough calluses along her spine sent shivers of pleasure across her entire torso. Her clothing felt like body armor.
Vin helped her shimmy out of her shirt. She reached for the ties on her pants but he stopped her, sitting up and pulling her up with him. He stared at her breasts, and for the first time since she was a teenager she wished she had been endowed a bit better. But Vin took her small breasts in hand, a look of wonder on his face that made her forget any regret. His lips followed his hands, a gentle but insistent laving of each in turn.
