“Buchess has a certain ring to it.” I reached down to ruffle the wolf’s soft ears. “I think I’ll still call her Butch for short.”
A few minutes passed of Jax informing me of members of Immortal Corp who had contacted him through the back channel. I only half listened. Not that I wasn’t trying, but my mind kept turning back to the Order arriving and getting the answers to Amber I so desperately needed.
Soon Commander Shaw entered the room wearing a white suit followed by Julian, the leader of the Order, and the Cyber Hunter woman whose name I still didn’t know.
Both Julian and the woman nodded to me when they entered. Commander Shaw came up to me with a ready grin. He pumped my hand with pride.
“I wouldn’t have anyone else leading, Daniel,” Commander Shaw reassured me. “I’m glad it’s you. You have the full support of Phoenix and our resources behind you. If we don’t win this fight, there’s no world left to bring back from the ashes. We’re so close now. So close to cultivating the Earth and replenishing the life there we lost.”
“I’m with you,” I said, thinking back to Immortal Corp and the assets it held, along with Rose’s fortune. “Once the Voy have been taken care of, maybe I’ll be in a position to help make that happen.”
“Thank you,” Commander Shaw said, looking around the room. “I know you have other people to talk to, but you should know that Monica keeps asking for you. She told me to send her best.”
“Tell her I said hi,” I said, thinking back to the woman and her father who had created the super seed that would bring life back to a dead Earth.
“She wanted to come herself, but I wasn’t sure how the meeting between the Corporations was going to play out,” Commander Shaw confided. “If you have any time, reconnecting with her would be good for you both. In stressful circumstances such as these, surrounding yourself with people who have your best interest in mind is important, trust me. I’ve been around for a while.”
“I do,” I told the commander as we moved away. “Thanks.”
I moved toward the two members of the Order. Julian stepped forward to shake my hand. Under his gloves, it was easy to tell the Cyber Hunter had a mechanical hand.
He applied just enough pressure not to be crushing.
Julian’s dark eyes searched my own as he said, “Well done, fighting for the role of leader. It’s no secret our two factions have been enemies. Perhaps it’s time to leave that in the past. We’re with you.”
“Thank you,” I said, removing my hand and trying not to wince. “In the spirit of our new friendship, I was wondering if you might be able to spread some light on a woman’s grave that isn’t a grave at all, just an empty box.”
“I know who you mean,” Julian said, motioning to the dark-haired woman next to him. “Cassie should be the one to tell you. She saw the actions executed herself.”
My heart drummed in my chest as Cassie stepped forward and Julian backed out of the conversation. I was so wound up, ready to hear the news, I didn’t even notice everyone at the table looking at us until Cassie turned her head to look at them.
“Daniel, Daniel,” Wesley called. “Everyone’s ready to begin the meeting.”
I wanted to yell. I wanted to scream at him for pity’s sake to give me a few moments to get the information I had been chasing ever since I remembered the woman I loved.
Is that what a leader would do, Daniel? I asked myself. Son of a gun. Answers are literally staring you in the face and you’re not going to grab them.
“Right,” I said, turning to everyone at the table. The words came out through gritted teeth. “So where are we?”
I was there more as a figurehead than anything else. Wesley took the reins of the meeting, which was fine by me. I had never planned a full-on assault, nor did I know the resources available to us.
Commander Shaw informed us of the mechanized units Phoenix had been constructing. Julian promised air support while Madam Eternal took it upon herself to tally the soldiers each corporation owned.
The number ended up being nine thousand, give or take a few mercenary bands that we would be able to hire if we could get a hold of them.
“Nine thousand against, how many did you say?” Commander Shaw questioned from his seat at the table.
“We don’t know.” Wesley shrugged. “Thousands for sure, maybe more.”
“Not very smart to go into battle not knowing the size or strength of your enemy.” Julian crossed his arms over his chest. His brow scrunched in thought. “What do we know?”
“We know they have air support and creatures the size of vehicles that they grow,” I said. “If I had to guess, I’d say they have us outnumbered three, maybe four to one right now.”
“We’ll meet them outside of the Martian cities when they come,” Madam Eternal chimed in. “I can’t imagine an enemy like this deals in strategy. Not if they’re as arrogant as the reports I’ve read.”
I remember how they attacked the Way settlement. “No, they’ll come for us straight up the gut. They’re not great shots either. They’ll use fire support only as long as it takes for them to get up close and personal.”
“They’ll probably attack Elysium first, then. That’s the city closest to where they’ve set up shop,” Jax reasoned, still standing beside the table of food. “They’ll come hard and fast.”
“The Phoenix mech units should be our front line,” Wesley said, nodding to Commander Shaw then Julian in turn. “The Order ships will have their hands full with the enemy crafts and creatures. We’ll use our soldiers along the flanks.”
“What about the GG meeting with the Voy tomorrow night?” Angel asked. “Shouldn’t we be talking about that as well?”
Wesley caught everyone up on the GG and their unfounded hopes of a civilized meeting with the Voy.
“So we’re going to go in tomorrow night to save the Galactic Government, who’s meeting with the enemy, the same Galactic Government who wants you dead?” Cassie asked, looking over at me. “Is that about right?”
“Well, when you put it like that,” I said, not hiding my smirk. “Yeah, that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
“Okay, just checking,” Cassie said, leaning back from the table.
“A small team to lead them to safety would be best,” Madam Eternal suggested. “We don’t want a full-on fight with the Voy right now. We still need time to gather our assets.”
“I agree,” Wesley said, taking a long puff of his cigar. “A four-person team should do the job. We’ll jump in, secure the GG, and get out. Hopefully, they’ll realize what we do by that time, that there is no negotiating with the Voy. This only ends one way.”
“Time and location for this meeting?” Julian asked. “I’m assuming you have an inside person in the GG feeding us this information?”
“We do,” I divulged, thinking of Captain Valentine. “Our asset will pull through. I’ll go secure the GG officers tomorrow night.”
“Not alone,” Angel said.
“I’m in,” Jax added. “Although with Preacher out, we’ll be short one.”
I saw Cassie trade a look with Julian. The latter nodded.
“You have four,” Cassie answered. “I’ll go as well.”
With the larger matters decided, what remained of the conversation was more tactics and plans to get everyone and all the armor to Mars on time.
The meeting was soon adjourned. I found myself waiting for Cassie as she stood from the table. I motioned her over. She nodded.
She took long strides to meet me at the door. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to have this conversation, but I knew it wasn’t here.
X hadn’t said much during the meeting and she still didn’t. Instead of words, X overlaid my vision with a path in augmented reality.
I followed with Cassie next to me.
I had waited long enough. I didn’t want to wait any longer to get to the area X was directing us toward.
“Is she still alive?” I asked as we traversed the wide ha
lls of the mansion.
My stomach twisted inside me as Cassie gave me all the answers I thought I wanted.
Twenty
“She’s alive,” Cassie answered in a matter-of-fact tone. “I was there that day on the bridge when Echo tried his best to kill Amber. I moved in, but I was too slow to stop him. The best I could do was grab her before the Galactic Government or Immortal Corp fished her from the water.”
I slowed my steps up a steep staircase long enough to look at her. Cassie looked me full in the face without blinking.
“Heart rate, tone, body position all say she’s telling the truth,” X exclaimed inside my head. “Oh, Daniel, Amber’s alive!”
A pressure I didn’t realize I was holding left my chest. I felt like I could breathe again.
“There’s more,” Cassie added. The tone of her voice told me not to get too excited.
“She had extensive brain damage from the attempt on her life,” Cassie revealed as we reached an upper floor and continued down another hall. “She was in a coma for months. We weren’t sure she was going to pull through. It was only because of her healing ability and her will to survive that she did at all.”
We stopped at a corner room that looked like a library. Open windows spilled moonlight into the chamber. Dark brown and black furniture covered the area from cushioned chairs to tables. Crammed bookcases lined the walls. It was any bibliophile’s dream. Right now, I couldn’t focus on any of that.
“But she is alive,” I repeated. “The brain damage?”
“She’s alive and completely healed,” Cassie assured me. “The damage to her brain was corrected by her healing ability. It took months to get her completely healed. Her memories weren’t taken but dampened in a way.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.
“I mean she remembered you and Immortal Corp along with what was done to her,” Cassie explained. “I had a lot of conversations with her in those months while she got back on her feet. She told me she remembered everything, but she just wanted it to be over now. She told me about you, how she loved you. She mourned your death when you came up missing. We both thought Immortal Corp killed you or maybe you even took your own life. You were a ghost.”
I sensed a bad ending to the story Cassie was telling me.
“Okay, but where is she now?” I asked, losing my patience. “Where did Amber go?”
“She knew if she went after Immortal Corp, the circle of death would just start all over again,” Cassie said. “She wanted out. She wanted it to be over. I think her not being able to remember things so vividly was a blessing in a way. She was able to move on and get out. If she recalled all the details distinctly, I don’t know if she would’ve been able to leave it all behind.”
“She wanted out,” I repeated slowly. “At least that’s what they told me. I saw in Echo’s memory. The Founders told him and Sam she was contacting the Order trying to barter a truce.”
“I was her contact,” Cassie agreed. “That’s why I was there on the bridge that day. We had just come from a meeting. We were going to try to stem some of the bloodletting between the Order and Immortal Corp. Julian was at least willing to hear the idea. It seems the Founders weren’t.”
“Where is she?” I asked, already heading for the door. A manic need to see her possessed me. If she was alive, then I was going to her. She didn’t know I was alive. This would change everything. All thoughts of aliens or being the head of Immortal Corp fled my mind like darkness retreating from the morning sun.
“Daniel.” Cassie’s voice brought me back from my delusions of joining Amber and leaving all this behind me. “She mourned you. We gave her a new identity and she started a new life. She got out. Let her be.”
“What?” I snapped, enraged. “What are you talking about? She thought I was dead. She didn’t know. You said yourself that her memories weren’t as vivid as she would have liked. If she knows I’m alive—”
I cut myself off. I really thought about what I was about to say.
If she’s really alive, then what? I asked myself. You’re going to drag her back into all of this? Are you going to be the one to put her on the front line against the Voy? A price on her head, wanted by the GG?
I felt like I was being ripped straight down the middle.
“Let her go,” Cassie told me in a calm, quiet voice. “Give her the chance we never got, to leave all the killing behind. She’s happy now. Don’t take that from her.”
“I have to see her,” I said, running a tongue over the dry walls of my mouth. “I have to see her. Where is she? The moon, Earth?”
“She’s here in Athens,” Cassie answered.
“What!?” I couldn’t help but keep from shouting. The idea that the woman for whom I was searching for so long was in the very same city I was in was maddening. “Where? I need an address.”
Cassie hesitated.
“Give me the address,” I growled. I moved toward Cassie, not really sure what I was going to do.
Cassie took a step back, not in fear but in a stance that I knew well. I’d seen her take up the same guard when I fought her in the Phoenix prison block when she came to kill Echo.
I could feel the adrenaline start to course through my body as that primal rage inside me moved just beneath the surface. I stopped myself halfway to her.
I took a deep breath. The idea that Cassie held the information I needed so desperately and refused to give it to me was beyond anger. Still, I had to control my temper.
The door to the library opened and padded feet entered the room. I’d forgotten all about Butch. The wolf sensed there was something wrong. It moved through the room to stand next to me. Large yellow eyes looked at me for direction as if to ask what was wrong.
Unlike Madam Eternal, Butch didn’t immediately growl at Cassie or Julian, for that matter, a fact I found interesting and filed away for future thought.
“We’re not going to do this,” I said, taking another deep breath. “It’s been a long time since I’ve pleaded with anyone. Is that what you want me to do here? Because I will. If you want me to get down on my knees and beg, that’s what I’ll do.”
Cassie lowered her fists. It was clear I had taken her off guard. She was ready for a physical confrontation. With good reason too; not only were we bred to fight, we were on opposing factions.
A long moment of silence passed between us.
“I’ll give you the address on one condition,” Cassie finally spoke. “At least watch her first. See the life she’s built for herself these last five years before you run in and destroy it all.”
“I will,” I promised.
“Swear it to me,” Cassie said.
“I swear,” I vowed. “If you give me her address, I’ll go tonight just to see her before I let her know I’m still alive.”
“That AI of yours able to receive data?” Cassie said with a heavy sigh.
“I am,” X answered out loud.
“I’m sending the address over now,” Cassie said as she pushed the left sleeve of her black jacket up her arm.
As a Cyber Hunter, different parts of Cassie’s body were augmented. Both forearms were made of metal. On the back of her left forearm was a screen she tapped a few times, sending the promised data.
“Got it,” X said.
“Thank you,” I threw over my shoulder as I headed for the door.
“Remember your promise,” Cassie called to my back. “Remember what you swore.”
With X’s help, I sprinted through the mansion and down flights of stairs for the garage. I needed a vehicle. Hope overflowed in my heart. Amber was alive, she was here in the same city, probably just minutes away.
Everything I wanted for so long was finally within my reach. I would follow through with my promise and watch her first, but there was no doubt in my mind I would go to her.
Amber, my Amber would be happy to see me. I knew she would. If she wanted out of this life, I’d join her. After we fought back the Voy, I’
d retire myself. Who knows, maybe we’d even get a house have a kid or two.
I laughed to myself like a mad man as X provided directions to the garage. The few Way settlers and incoming Immortal Corp members I did pass looked at me with worry.
I didn’t have time to explain to them what was going on.
“Bapz has sensed your motion from cameras in the house,” X informed me. “He’s asking if everything is okay.”
“Tell him I’ll be right back,” I said. “I have to borrow one of the cars.”
I burst through a door on the right side of the mansion that led to a massive open garage with rows of not only vehicles but motorcycles as well.
Sleek vehicles ranging from high end sports models to heavier modes of transportation like SUVs met my eyes. Right now, I needed speed.
I went over to one of the hover bikes and hopped on. A black helmet with a dark visor sat waiting on the seat.
I slammed it on my head and fired up the engine. The expensive vehicle hummed underneath me.
“Bapz wants to talk to you,” X said. “He sounds worried.”
“Go ahead, put him through.” I gunned the engine as X opened the garage doors that slid into the ground.
“Sir, may I suggest that going out anywhere right now is not the smartest idea?” Bapz’s worried voice sounded in my ear. “You’re a wanted man. We can’t lose you as head of the new coalition.”
“I won’t be gone long,” I said as Butch came into the garage and started sniffing around. “I’m not going far.”
Butch trotted over to me and looked up.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, leaning down to her and scratching the underside of her jaw. “Stay.”
I wasn’t sure if she understood me or not, but the wolf sat down and panted.
As soon as the garage door was into the ground, I shot forward. I raced over the front of the mansion grounds and toward the main gate.
“Sir,” Bapz said rather forcefully. “I have to strongly disagree with this course of action. If there is anything you might need, I can send someone to get it for you. You must not leave—”
Vendetta: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 4) Page 13
