Mutual Trust

by Lea Linnett

  How did she explain that one of their enemies had become her only ally, one that she’d protect as fiercely as her own people? Bree’s lips shut tight, her heart beating rapidly. She’d known she would have to face it eventually, but this was so soon. “Noe…”

  “It’s smart.”

  Her head shot up, her brow furrowing. “What?”

  “Gaining his trust, making him like you. It gives him a reason to help you. I wouldn’t have gone as far as letting him touch me, but…” Noe shrugged. “This place isn’t a fortress, but it is a fucking maze, as far as I can tell. If we can use him to escape, then…”

  No. No, no, no, no, no. “That’s not…” she began, before she thought to hold her tongue. Noe’s gaze sharpened, and Bree sagged. “It sort of started that way, but…”

  What was she saying?

  “What, so you like him, too?” Noe’s voice sliced into Bree, making her breath catch. “Just how far have you taken this?” At Bree’s rapidly reddening face, her eyes widened. “Holy shit, Bree.”

  “I was alone here, Noe. Trapped.” She sucked in a deep breath, steeling herself. “Do you really think you could still see someone as the enemy when you’re forced to spend hours every day talking to them, learning about them? Do you really think you wouldn’t start to care?”

  “Yeah, but I wouldn’t fuck them,” Noe snapped. “Merde.”

  Bree glared. “It’s not about that. He—”

  “You can’t trust him?” Noe asked, horrified. “What if he’s using you?”

  “Oh, so it was fine to trust him as long as I thought I was wrapping him around my finger?”

  “Yes! Now you’re, like, compromised.”

  Bree scoffed, wishing she could throw herself back down on the bed, but it would feel too much like admitting defeat. She knew Noe was only worried—she was one of the few people Bree could call a real friend back at the Barracks—but the woman never knew when to let up. “I know what it looks like, okay? But I haven’t given up. You haven’t been here. You don’t know how tightly Urek has had me on lockdown. And Marek is our only way of getting past him.”

  “I thought you said he was a… halfbreed, or whatever. Sub-species,” Noe said, her nose wrinkling at the term. “What the hell can he do for us?”

  “A lot, I think. Urek seems to listen to him, despite all his bluster. They’re brothers.”

  Noe’s eyes widened. “But Urek’s…”

  “Pure, yeah. Different fathers.”

  “Huh.” She looked out the window for a moment, running her hand through the part of her hair not covered in levekk medi-plastic. “Right, so, say we trust Marek. You think he can get us out of here?”

  “I think he’ll try. And he knows this place better than either of us.”

  Noe chewed at her lip, and then smiled. “As long as I get my gun back, I’m in.”

  “What, so you can get it back to Luis before he realizes it’s missing? Probably too late for that,” Bree said, shaking her head. “And why the hell did you even bring a gun? They’re so unreliable.”

  “I didn’t steal it. Luis gave me a promotion. I’m now an official gunner,” Noe said proudly. “You think I was about to run straight into a fortress full of aliens with nothing but a bow and arrows? As far as foolish ideas, you got me beat there.”

  “Hey, I didn’t run anywhere. I slipped and got knocked unconscious.”

  “Still came up here with nothing to protect yourself but a stick and a piece of string,” Noe said, shrugging. “Point is, these guys could’ve been made of metal or something. They could’ve had big cats on leashes. So, I grabbed a gun.” She tossed her head, eyeing the door. “When do these aliens send their weird food around, anyway? Infiltrating an extraterrestrial facility is hard work.”

  Bree snorted. “I don’t think they’ll be sending any.”

  “Why not?”

  “You spat in Urek’s face,” she said, finally laying back on the bed. “He’s not gonna let that go easy. Good aim, by the way.”

  “Thanks.” Noe frowned at the window, her eyes narrowing. “He’s a real asshole. What’s he want, anyway?”

  “To know where our village is.” At Noe’s outraged squawk, Bree raised her palms placatingly. “I know. Trust me, I know. But that’s why I’m still here and alive, and not working some mine in the desert. It’s why Marek was told to talk to me.”

  “With all this talking you and your alien boyfriend have been doing… You never…”

  “Of course I didn’t tell him anything!” Bree said. “Nothing about where, anyway.”

  “So what did you tell him?” Noe asked, her tone sharp.

  “Look, just don’t, okay?”

  They fell into a strained silence, and Bree stared at the ceiling. She couldn’t allow the doubts to settle in. She knew Marek. She’d seen the sincerity in his eyes when he’d told her to run in the cage. He’d been prepared to throw everything away for her, and there had been no reason to fake that.

  She had to trust him.

  Besides, right now, they didn’t exactly have much choice. After Noe’s confrontation with Urek, Bree wasn’t sure they’d ever find a way out of here without Marek’s help.

  “But whatever,” Noe’s voice broke through her thoughts. “I guess the most important question is, what’s he got down there?”

  When Bree realized what her friend was asking, her face turned hotter than the summer sun. “Noe, what the hell?!”

  “What? You say he’s part human, but he’s got all those scales. So, what else is different? You know what I’m saying?”

  “Holy shit, Noe,” she said, rolling over in the bed and covering her ears with the thin, rubbery pillow. “Get some sleep.”

  “It’s still light outside!”

  “And you’ll wanna sleep through as much of the hunger as possible, believe me.” Bree had been accidentally snowed in on enough hunting trips to know when to give up and get some shut-eye.

  “Killjoy. I wanna hear about the alien dick.”

  “Sleep.”

  After a sharp snort, she felt the bed dip beside her, her friend’s long body fitting neatly onto the platform next to her own. Maybe, if she slept, she could stop thinking about him for a while, stop wondering.

  And maybe her heart would stop racing at the memory of his head clenched between her thighs, his textured tongue sending waves of scorching pleasure through her body, while his eyes burned into hers like molten firestones.

  20

  Bree’s stomach growled as she sat in the now-familiar observation room. Beside her, Noe fidgeted, her foot tapping against the floor. True to Urek’s threat, they hadn’t eaten since being dumped in Bree’s room the day before. She wasn’t sure if it was the hunger that had calmed her somewhat, but Noe had barely caused a stir when Peris’ team came to collect them, just pushed their hands away and insisted she could walk by herself.

  Now, she nudged Bree in the arm. “So how long do they usually keep you waiting?”

  “It depends. It’s been a while since they put me in here.”

  Noe snorted. “’Cause of your dates?”

  “Shut up.”

  The door panel buzzed then, revealing two large figures. Marek came first, and Bree’s mood lightened at the sight of him, despite the string of doubts that had been running through her head since the day before. But then Urek stalked in after him, his thick brow plate already dipped in an angry V, and her heart sank.

  “Oh great, the asshole,” Noe muttered, and Bree hit her in the leg. They were seated beside each other at the table, trapped on one side of the reactivated forcefield. It warped the image of the two levekk as Marek took one of the chairs opposite and Urek leaned towards him, saying something in their alien language. Urek’s head was crowned with its usual display of alien technology, and his earpiece flashed in the light.

  He moved to a panel on the wall after their short deliberation, and with a flash of his hand, the forcefield faded just long enough for Marek to push a
small box toward Bree and Noe. It snapped back into place as Noe shot to her feet, and Urek smiled meanly.

  Bree looked to Marek, who encouraged her with a nod. “Thank you for cooperating today,” he said in English, gesturing for Bree to open the box. Inside were a number of the bland, crumbling nutrient cakes, as awful-looking as ever, but Bree was hungry enough that she reached for one without hesitation, while Noe peered suspiciously into the box.

  “Wait, you don’t know what—” Her face fell as Bree ate the whole thing down in three bites and reached for another.

  “They’re fine, Noe.”

  The blond didn’t look convinced, but she picked one up anyway, making a face as she bit into it. “Ew.”

  Urek spat something from his spot in the corner, and Marek rolled his eyes, ignoring the angry levekk as he returned his attention to Bree and Noe. “Thank you. And I apologize for Urek. He wishes to interview you himself. I will act as translator.”

  “What did he say just then?” Noe asked, and Marek sighed.

  “It is not important. Urek speaks without thinking.”

  Urek interrupted with an annoyed hiss, starting a heated discussion between the two aliens, and Bree wondered how the hell this was going to work. She wanted to speak to Marek alone, to ask him if he was all right, or whether he’d found a way out of here. But Urek was in control now, and she knew he would never allow it.

  She glanced up at the camera in the corner. It was still as broken as the last time she’d seen it, hanging by its own wires from the socket on the wall. At least that was something in their favor.

  Finally, Urek subsided, although he still hovered nearby, his eyes hawkish. Marek looked exhausted already. “He wishes to know where your village is,” he said quickly, a hard look entering his eye, and Bree’s stomach flip-flopped.

  “Well, we’re not fucking telling him,” Noe snapped, her icy gaze on Urek as she smiled. “He can get fucked.”

  Bree sighed. “Noe…”

  But to her disappointment, Marek was already reluctantly relaying the message, and by the way Urek bared his teeth, he’d gotten the sentiment just right. “You will tell him, or your rations will be revoked. For a week this time,” Marek translated after more irate words erupted from the alien.

  “Take our rations, then! You think we managed to survive out there without learning how to go hungry?” Noe said, her voice rising. “You lizards with your servants and your fancy technology wouldn’t last a second!”

  “He will take away your luxuries as well,” Marek said, eyeing Urek carefully as the levekk circled the table and glared through the forcefield. Urek’s words came slow and low, his eyes murderous. “He will place you in a cell in the mine, with no bed, no chem-shower. That is…” Marek suddenly stiffened, his eyes finding Bree’s. “That is how they once handled outsiders here, he says.”

  Bree’s stomach dropped, a chill rushing through her. Had her mother been kept that way?

  Noe rose from her chair again and pegged Urek with a withering glare as they faced each other. All that separated them was the forcefield, and Bree could almost believe one of them was about to reach through it, they each looked so angry.

  “You keep us here,” Noe said, “and our people will come for you. I had you beat yesterday until you cheated, and there are better fighters than me waiting to come and kick your scaly ass. They’ll enjoy taking you down—taking all of this down—and when I get out? I’ll rip you apart myself, asshole!”

  Urek barked something and shot forward without even waiting for Marek’s translation, as if he understood her words from the tone alone, and suddenly the forcefield was gone. He grabbed Noe by the throat with one hand and blocked her fist with the other, jerking her back. Bree and Marek rose in unison, but they weren’t fast enough to stop him as he hauled Noe across the threshold and threw her to the floor, reactivating the forcefield with a swipe of his hand.

  Noe was on her feet in seconds, clawing at the huge levekk, and Bree slammed up against the invisible wall. “No!”

  She didn’t realize Marek had called out until Peris and her team burst through the door. They pulled the struggling Noe out the door, and Urek followed. Bree stood, stunned, as the door slid shut and the room fell silent.

  She and Marek had been left unattended, and it had happened so fast that her head spun.

  “Let me out. We have to go after them!” she said, banging her fists ineffectually against the forcefield. They bounced off, as if the forcefield was softer than wood but thicker than water, and the buzzing noise intensified as her palm came to rest.

  Marek’s hand pressed over the same spot, but his brow was pinched, his eyes wide. “Urek revoked my clearance. I can’t free you.”

  “Then go, please! Make sure she’s all right.”

  “I will,” he said, “but first, you must listen.”

  She froze, staring at him. “What?”

  He pressed his brow to the forcefield, the rippling atoms making his eyes even more violet as he held her gaze. “I will get you out of here, Bree.”

  Her eyes widened. “Yesterday…”

  “I meant what I said. I have been selfish. I have ignored your suffering for my own gain. But I will do this no longer,” he said. His hand spread against the barrier, so close to touching her own. “I cannot keep my promise—keep you safe—while Urek imprisons you. You deserve to be with your people. I will make that happen.”

  Bree’s heart ached, a million words on her tongue, but there was no time. “How? Urek will be guarding the entrances even more carefully since Noe broke in.”

  “I don’t know, yet. But with Silas’ help, I think we can steal a transport…”

  “A—” She cut herself off. This wasn’t the time for questions about how the hell they would steal a spaceship out from under Urek’s claws. There were far more important things.

  She swallowed thickly, her mind awhirl. “Noe, too. We have to help her.”

  “She will not be harmed. And I will ensure that both of you are freed. It may take time, but please do not give up. Promise me,” he said, his voice strained, and Bree could barely hear over the blood rushing in her ears.

  “I promise.”

  He nodded, finally tearing himself away. Within seconds he was gone.

  And Bree was alone.

  21

  Bree sat on the bed after being sent back to her room, her insides knotting up. She hadn’t seen Noe in nearly an hour, and she had to fight back her own panicked breaths as they threatened to steal the air from her lungs.

  She was alone again. Yesterday, she’d had Marek in her arms, Silas hanging by the door, and Noe back at her side, and now, she had none of them. The locked door hadn’t budged under her furious pummeling, and the four walls felt more confining than ever.

  And again, she could do little but wait and hope that Marek really was on her side. Her instincts said that he was, and they had rarely failed her out in the harsh, predator-filled wilderness, but this wasn’t her forest. This was an alien cage, and she was trying to fathom an alien mind. Had her senses become dulled from her time here?

  There were no easy answers.

  She jumped to her feet when the door snapped open and Noe was pushed roughly into the room. Her blond hair pointed in all directions, and blood ran down to her chin from a split lip, but she still turned to glare at the guard over her shoulder as the door slid shut.

  “Noe, are you okay?” Bree asked, stepping forward to help as she headed for the bathroom.

  “I’m fine,” Noe said as she spit blood into the sink and washed her face. She caught some water in her hands, gulping it down and sighing. “Thank fuck the water’s still water.”

  “What happened? They hauled you off and Marek said he’d check on you, but that’s all I’ve heard.”

  “Yeah, he checked on me.”

  “And?” she asked, her voice rising, and Noe sighed.

  “Come on, I need to lie down.”

  Bree held her breath as
they moved back to the bed and Noe flopped down on it.

  “You got a way to turn the lights down?”

  “No. Come on, Noe.”

  “Heh. No means Noe. That’s what my parents always said.”

  “Noe!” she snapped, frustrated now as she sat herself beside her friend. “Tell me what the hell happened or I’ll split your other lip.”

  “Pfft, as if you could. You suck at close-quarters.” But she heaved another sigh, shading her eyes with a hand. “Nothing happened. They dragged me into another little room with no windows. Sat me down at a table. The asshole was yelling and carrying on while the other lizards stood around looking uncomfortable. Then Marek showed up.

  “Then, it was all just like before. They start interrogating me, saying they’ll starve me, lock me up.” She paused, frowning slightly. “Actually, I got the impression some of the threats were worse than that, but your alien got real testy and started arguing with the asshole.”

  “He did?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I should’ve been there, but Urek…”

  “Hey, it’s all good. This wasn’t from him, by the way,” she said, touching her lip. “It was the bitch with the crest.”

  “Peris?”

  “Yeah. She is a she, right? She was smaller than some of the others.”

  Bree nodded. “Meaner, too.”

  “Than Urek? No way.” Noe chuckled. “That guy’s got a hell of a chip on his shoulder.”

  “You’re telling me.” She hesitated, her fist clenching in the thin blanket. “Did Marek say anything to you?”

  Noe’s gaze sharpened. “About what?”

  “…About an escape.”

  The blond shot up, staring at Bree with wide eyes. “No. What escape? Are we getting out of here?”

  “Potentially. He didn’t give me details. I don’t even know if he has a plan, but he said he might be able to get a transport with Silas’ help—”