Interface

by Isabo Kelly

  Gina blanched at the sight of the suits.

  “We’ll only use them if we have to,” Alex murmured, close to her ear. “We’ll hold out here for BinRal as long as we can.”

  “Storm’s hit,” Nathan said from a small computer console near the door. “We won’t last long out there without the suits.”

  “Only if we need them. Nate, check the tunnel.”

  Nathan disappeared the way they’d come, and Alex moved to the console.

  “What are you doing?” She moved up behind him.

  “Setting the auto-destruct. We’ve got fifteen minutes before the rendezvous with BinRal. Whether he’s here or not, we’ll have to leave.”

  “How much time are you giving us to get away?” She wrapped her arms around herself, warding off the cold seeping through the walls.

  “Twenty minutes.”

  “Is that enough time if BinRal isn’t here in fifteen minutes?”

  “It’ll have to be.”

  “You may as well turn that off.”

  At the sound of the new voice, Alex spun, blaster raised, a strong arm pushing her behind him. Nathan stood with his hands up, a blaster to his head, half blocking the figure behind him. The woman in front of Nathan, however, stood in full view with a wicked looking weapon pointed at Alex’s chest.

  Gina choked on a curse and clenched Alex’s free arm. “Mira?” She could hardly believe what she was seeing—like looking at a ghost. Mira was supposed to be dead, killed in the public link accident that had also killed Barry. All three of the other members of the team who’d had the M-SIDs injected into their blood stream were supposed to be dead.

  The woman smiled. “Hi, Gina. Surprised to see me? I’m afraid only Barry made the train that day. Lucky me. Thanks for that shout, by the way. Made Louis’s job pinpointing the tunnel easier.”

  Gina felt her lip twitch with a snarl. All her shock and fear were buried under outrage as she watched a woman she’d trusted point a blaster at Alex. She tried stepping around him, but he held her in place with one hand, never taking his gaze off Mira.

  Mira laughed, a light, relaxed sound. “Gina, that temper of yours is going to get you killed.”

  On a good day, Mira was an attractive woman, maybe a little small, a little too skinny, but she was an exceptional engineer. Gina had liked her and considered her a friend. “You want to try it, Mira? Put that blaster down and face me, and we’ll see who gets killed.”

  “Face you in hand-to-hand? You really do think I’m stupid. I heard that in your thoughts, you know. How highly you rank my intellect compared to yours.”

  “Is that what all this is about? You think I insulted your intelligence?”

  Mira’s face lost all trace of emotion. “I’m paid too well to take this personally, Gina.”

  “By who and for what?” Gina tried to move around Alex’s arm again, but he wasn’t cooperating, as usual.

  “Influential and rich people. Because you should have eliminated the telepathy bug in the M-SIDs.”

  “Another corporation?” Alex asked.

  “This is bigger than corporate war. The uncontrolled spread of telepathy through the populous would cause chaos.”

  “Government?” Alex’s question made Mira’s mouth twitch.

  “Influential and rich,” she repeated. “In a position to make sure this telepathy doesn’t get out.”

  “You got rid of your M-SIDs?” Gina asked. She pushed at Alex’s arm again, testing. He didn’t budge.

  “I don’t have to now.” Mira tilted her head. “You should have encouraged your father to sell the technology when he had the chance.”

  “Why would I want to do that?” Gina’s gaze danced to Nathan and the man, Louis, standing behind him. Louis was watching the scene, smiling slightly, ignoring the mercenary. Mira’s attention seemed more on Gina now than on Alex. If she could just distract Mira and Louis a little more, she’d give Alex and Nathan a chance to take them down. Knowing Alex was going to hate this, she dodged in front of him before he could stop her.

  Mira jerked the blaster toward her. “Stop.”

  “Why? You’re going to kill me anyway. I’d rather die fighting than let you subject me to the torture you described in those messages.”

  Mira’s brown eyes slanted. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Gina,” Alex hissed. Taking a step toward her.

  She ignored him and focused fully on Mira’s confusion, moving so Mira was between her and a potential shot from Louis, but so that she was blocking Alex from Mira’s blaster.

  “The messages my father’s been getting. Detailing the accidents, the torture and death meted out to members of the team.”

  “I don’t know about any messages. And stop moving or I’ll blast a hole in your chest.”

  “If you didn’t write the messages, why are you here?”

  “To collect on payment due to me. I deliver you to my well-funded associates, they hold you for ransom, and your father calls off the research. Simple. And I make a lot of money.”

  “Your associates aren’t going to ransom me, Mira. They’re going to torture and kill me.”

  “Gina.” Alex’s voice was a growl now.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mira snapped.

  Gina saw that stubborn look come into Mira’s eyes. Recognized it from too many late night arguments in the lab. She switched tactics. “Do you still hear it?” She dropped her voice to a murmur. “That first time, the sounds of so many voices in your head.”

  “Shut up. That has nothing to do with this. I’m being trained. I’ll never have to suffer that way again. There’s a lot of money available to the properly trained telepath.”

  “This is all about money for you? You can just ignore the killing?” Mira’s stubbornness was one thing, but Gina couldn’t understand the woman’s willful ignorance. The more she refused to accept the truth, the angrier Gina got. “Didn’t you hear about Jack? How your employers tortured him before they killed him?”

  Mira’s blaster wavered. “He probably deserved it,” she spat. “He probably didn’t cooperate. That’s all you have to do, Gina. Cooperate and nothing will happen to you. They’re just going to keep you until your scanners destruct and your father agrees to their terms. That’ll be the end of it.”

  “You can’t believe that? Not after Barry and Jack.” Gina moved another step forward, keeping Mira’s body between herself and Louis. “And what use will you be to them when your scanners destruct?”

  “We’ve already altered that part of the program in my M-SIDs. After all, I was the one who wrote the time-limited destruct algorithm.”

  “Damn it, Gina,” Alex hissed, “get out of the way.” She sensed his movement behind her but didn’t dare turn away from Mira.

  Louis shifted his blaster from Nathan’s head, aiming at Alex over Nathan’s shoulder.

  “I wouldn’t try anything funny, Mr. Alexander,” Mira warned. “I wouldn’t want to have to kill her. Drop the blaster. Now, or I’m taking her leg.”

  Gina heard the clatter of metal against the stone floor behind her. Mira smiled.

  “Feeling better now, with both men unarmed?”

  “I’ll feel better when you shut up.” Mira steadied the blaster. Gina watched her clicked it to a high stun setting and aimed.

  Gina prepared to take the shot. It was going to hurt. She couldn’t avoid it. But maybe she could give Alex and Nathan a chance at Louis and Mira. She balanced on the balls of her feet, smiled at her former colleague, and lunged.

  She tried twisting aside as the blaster bolt arched toward her, but the shot caught her arm and sent her spinning. Air exploded from her lungs. The shot stole any control she had of the lunge, but her momentum slammed her into Mira. They crashed to the floor, Gina a numb heap on top of the struggling woman. She could feel the press of the blaster against her side, even through the parka, but she couldn’t move to defend herself.

  The last thing Gina heard
before she blacked out was the sound of her name echoing off the walls.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Alex settled into a crevice against the snow covered mountains with Gina’s limp body draped across his lap, trying to keep them out of the worst of the blowing winds. She was so still in his arms, his heart hurt. Checking the biosuit monitors, he knew she was breathing. But watching that bitch Mira shoot her had taken years off his life. And made one thing very clear.

  He wanted a hell of a lot more with Gina than a few weeks of lust.

  But first she needed to wake up.

  He leaned against the snow bank and shifted her around so he could watch her face through the helmet’s clear visor. He desperately wanted to stroke her cheek, to lay kisses across her closed lids. Come on, Gina, come back to me. Wake up, baby.

  Glancing up and searching the snow for any sign of Nate and BinRal returning, he allowed himself a moment to wonder what would happen when she did wake up, now that she was inside a suit. Would she really be able to read his mind?

  The idea should bother him a lot more than it did. Just days ago he’d considered telepathy an abhorrent invasion of his privacy. Yet, as he thought of Gina being able to see into his thoughts . . . Of all the people in the universe, having this one woman read his mind was both dangerous and, surprisingly, okay. He had no idea what she’d find in there. That gave him pause. Would she run screaming from the man he was if she could see that deeply into him? Would his feelings for her push her too far? He knew she wanted him. She’d put herself between him and a blaster—stupid ass move though it was—and he’d never forget that bravery. But watching her get shot had tipped a fine balance between control and anger. He was dangerous like this. If she woke up, read those blood-thirsty thoughts, would he ruin any potential between them?

  Maybe the M-SIDs would take awhile to kick in. Maybe they’d have a few minutes before she could read his thoughts, a little time for him to…explain.

  He ran a hand along the side of her helmet, the closest he could get to a caress, and watched her breathing. As her eyelids began to flutter, hope rose up to clog his throat. That’s it. Wake up.

  Gina? Come on, baby. Come back to me. That’s it. Good, girl. You can do it. The litany ran steadily and comfortingly through her mind as she struggled past the blankets tangling her brain. The first thing she noticed beyond the voice was the strange taste of the air. After a moment, she felt the gentle pressure of sensor pads pressed against her pulse points. The sound of wind raged around her, but it was muted and distant.

  She was in a biosuit, outside, in the middle of a blizzard.

  She opened her eyes and launched herself upward. No you don’t. A firm hand eased her back down. “Gina? Listen to me, honey. It’s Alex. Are you okay? Can you hear me?”

  She blinked against the white-blue snow and turned to focus on him. He was wearing a biosuit too. They were out in the middle of what looked like a snowfield in a pocket at the side of a mountain. There was no sign of the tunnel, Mira, Louis, or Nathan. “What happened? Where’s Nathan?”

  I can’t believe you did that to me, and now all you can think about is Nate. “He’s fine. He’s with BinRal, and they’re on their way. BinRal’s ship was sabotaged. That’s why he was late.” Damn, but I need to kiss you. If you ever do anything like that to me again, I’ll wring your neck. “As for what happened . . .”

  Gina frowned, slowly realizing she was hearing a lot more than he was saying out loud. “I can hear your thoughts,” she whispered, not sure whether the mike in her suit would pick up her voice. It must have because his expression shifted to a different kind of concern.

  “I thought you might. I wasn’t sure. I was hoping the scanners wouldn’t activate so quickly.”

  “Only takes about thirty seconds. And I’d love to kiss you too, but lifting the visor in this weather wouldn’t be wise. What happened to Mira and Louis? The house?”

  His thoughts came at her in a tumble of emotions and images that she couldn’t sort through and was embarrassed to try after the first few rather graphic images formed. But his thoughts of sex were easier to take than the deep emotions churning in him.

  “I disarmed Mira after you were stunned. Nate had to kill Louis. Unfortunate, since we could’ve gotten information from him.” He shrugged. “We didn’t have much time. There were more people in the house, so we had to get out and blow it fast.” I wasn’t letting anyone else near you. “We put you in the suit to protect you from the weather and the worst effects of the stunner shot. The destruct was down to five minutes by the time we were ready to go.” I almost killed that bitch for shooting you. “We tried to get Mira into a suit to bring with us. We were hoping to pump her for more information. She gave us a bit to go on,” thanks to you, “but I suspect the one orchestrating all of this will disappear now.” There’s no place he’ll be able to hide from me. “Mira started screaming when we tried to put her in a suit. Went berserk and ran back up the tunnel. She didn’t have time to get out before it blew.” And even if she had, I’d have killed her eventually.

  “Am I still in danger?” Gina frowned as she tried to sort through the chaos of his spoken and unspoken comments.

  Not while I’m around. “I doubt it. The person or people that bribed Mira don’t know what she’s told us so they can’t risk coming after you again.” I’ll eat them alive if they think they can hurt you.

  “So, I’m safe as long as you’re around?”

  “Yeah. You are.”

  “Then, just exactly how long are you planning on being around?”

  “You can read my thoughts? You tell me.”

  Gina closed her eyes, searched through the chaos of images and words, half phrases and feelings racing through Alex’s mind. When she found what she was looking for, she opened her eyes and smiled. “That long, huh?”

  ABOUT ISABO KELLY

  Isabo grew up in Las Vegas, the Entertainment Capital of the World. Unbeknownst to her, Las Vegas prepared Isabo for a life in the spotlight.

  Though she started making up stories at an early age, Isabo originally chose science as her first career. She pursued this by moving to Honolulu, Hawaii for her undergraduate degree in Zoology and was lucky enough to work with dolphins for two and a half years.

  Returning to Las Vegas, Isabo worked in the Natural History Museum as the Shark Lady, hand-feeding live sharks and other tropical fish and reptiles. It was at this time she rekindled her love of writing stories and started her first novel.

  A few years later, Isabo had the opportunity to move to Germany with her family and jumped at the chance. She spent nearly two years traveling Europe and developing her writing skills before life took her to Ireland where she returned to college to finish her Ph.D. in Animal Behavior.

  Isabo's first novel, The Promise of Kierna'Rhoan, was published in 1999 and began her career in the spotlight. Isabo earned herself a reputation as one of the industry's top science fiction, fantasy and paranormal authors with such titles as Destiny's Seduction (2005 RIO Award of Excellent winner, 2005 EPPIE Award Finalist for Best Fantasy and 2003 Pearl Award Nominee) and Siren Singing (2009 PRISM FF&P Award Winner).

  Isabo now lives in New York City, another entertainment capital, with her family and enjoying the literary life.

  • • • • •

  Get in touch with Isabo

  Isabo Kelly (http://www.isabokelly.com)

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  • • • • •

  Thank you for reading Interface.

  If you liked this story, watch for other releases in The Naravan Chronicle Series.

  Please log into Tirgearr Publishing (http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com) and Isabo's website for upcoming releases.

  Author Copyright 2012 Isabo Kelly (http://www.isabokelly.com)

  Covert Art: Amanda Stephanie (http://www.tirgearrdesign.com)

  Editor: Kemberlee Shortland (http://www.kemberl
ee.com)

  Proofreader: R. L. McCoy (http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com)