Oblivion: The Complete Series (Books 1-9)

by Joshua James

  The bitter reality that she was about to die seemed to pass over her face as Clarissa watched. Satisfied that she was pacified, Clarissa stood openly over Vesta. She clutched Vesta’s shoulder, driving her thumb deep into the wound there as she yanked her upright.

  Vesta gasped, but didn’t seem to have the strength left to even scream. Her tongue seemed to hang loose in her throat. She barely moved.

  Clarissa knew the right thing to do was kill her. End the torture.

  “But she deserves the torture,” Blake whispered in her ear. He was kneeling down next to her. “Doesn’t she?”

  Vesta’s eyes began to roll back. Clarissa dug her thumb in deeper, and Vesta winced again.

  “Please what?” Clarissa asked. “Please don’t kill you? Please spare your life? Please get it over with quick? You need to be more specific.”

  Vesta, in a last-ditch effort to save herself, grabbed Clarissa by the wrist and tried to pull her down to her level. But she barely had any strength in her grip. It slipped off Clarissa like soft tissue. “Please don’t.”

  Clarissa answered by slicing open Vesta’s stomach and letting her guts steam up the cool tunnel. She stood, her own legs suddenly weak.

  Did I really just do that?

  “You did what you had to,” Blake said, standing next to her. “It wasn’t torture. It was revenge.”

  Clarissa wiped her knife off on her shirt, feeling her strength return. Then she sheathed it, cannibalized all the ammo and weapons she could from her gutted opponent, and turned back toward LeFay’s prone body. Blake had disappeared.

  As she picked LeFay up, she realized that this was the first time in a long time that she didn’t feel the pain in her side. Killing Vesta seemed to relieve all her own pain.

  “Come on, you crazy bitch,” Clarissa said to LeFay, thinking she could just as well use the expression on herself as she glanced around once more, looking for the visage of her dead husband. “Let’s get you a new power source. I’m tired of fighting alone.”

  Four

  And It Feels So Good

  “So you just ran into her in the subway?” Ada asked incredulously. She’d just listened to Ben recount how he and Tomas had managed to survive and meet up with Clarissa and LeFay, or what was left of LeFay.

  Ben shrugged. “Seems more like she ran into us. She was headed for the bunker.”

  Tomas agreed. “She was like a pig in the slop down there,” the old farmer said. “Those eyes of hers made it easy going.”

  Ada shook her head. “And yet you ended up back here?” They were standing in front of LeFay’s biohack shop.

  “Those zealots checked it once,” Ben said. “We’re guessing they won’t check again. Besides, Clarissa figured there’d be a backup power source or another power core for LeFay here.”

  “Especially after we saw everything go down at the bunker,” Tomas agreed. “Where else can we go?”

  Tomas began to mess with a security pad on the door, while Ada’s thoughts wandered to her own not-so-safehouse, where her group was holed up. She had to get back to them soon before they gave up on her and moved on, or all got killed. Just like Ace.

  She’d been shocked to hear about him. Even though she didn’t know him as well as Ben, and he’d been no peacemaker with her, she knew him to be loyal. When Ben had explained what happened to Ace, the conversation got awkward when he insisted that his father had killed him.

  “Whatever you saw, that wasn’t your father, Ben,” Ada had said. “It was just the Shapeless screwing with you. It’s what they do.” She thought of Bishop, or the thing that looked like him.

  “You weren’t there,” Ben had insisted. “I dunno how to explain it, but I know it was him, the real him. There was some alien in him, but that wasn’t a fake. I could feel it.”

  “Here we are,” Tomas said, bringing Ada’s thoughts back to the present as the doors to New Dawn finally opened. It seemed like a million years ago that she’d fled the biohacking business/safe house.

  Had it really only been a week?

  “Stay low and quiet. Clarissa’s waiting for us,” Tomas said curtly. He’s really turning into a little leader, Ada thought. Ben, on the other hand, seemed to be spiraling back into his obsession with his father. She was worried about him.

  Security inside the New Dawn consisted of a laser sensor system Clarissa had put together from parts inside the shop. She saved the upstairs apartment for a defensive stronghold if necessary. Soon as anyone stepped through the inner front door, the alarms would go off upstairs and it would be time to fight. That was, if she wasn’t expecting Ben and Tomas.

  As soon as they entered the New Dawn, Tomas yelled out: “It’s us, Clarissa!”

  Clarissa, already halfway down the stairs, appeared out of the stairwell, gun in hand. She had a smile from ear to ear upon seeing Ada. “I don’t believe it. Never thought I’d see you again.”

  “Hell, I never thought I’d ever see any of you again.” Ada hurried over to Clarissa and hugged her.

  “You and me both.” Clarissa seemed happy but distracted. As she hugged Ada, Ada noticed her seemingly staring off across the room and nodding. As she pulled back, Ada noticed her eyes looked a bit sunken, too. Darker than she remembered them.

  “Any luck with robot woman up there?” Ben asked.

  “Stop with that shit,” Clarissa snapped.

  “My bad,” Ben said, hands up, trying to play it off. Clarissa didn’t seem to be enjoying the joke. “How’s she doing?”

  “I have no idea what I’m doing,” Clarissa huffed. “I got the new power core in her, but I can’t seem to figure out to turn her back on. If that’s even possible.”

  “Sure this is all up to snuff?” asked Tomas as he reattached a few wires from the laser sensors to old-school plastic explosives. “Don’t want any of us to go boom.”

  Clarissa waved away his concerns.

  “Did you want to go back to the rest of your other group tonight?” Ben asked Ada.

  “It’ll take us a couple of hours to walk there.”

  “Get some rest first,” Clarissa suggested. “Then we can all go join up with them.”

  Tomas eyed Clarissa. “Somebody has to stay here.”

  “That can be you, then,” she snapped. “I’m sick of staying in here.”

  “Sounds fair to me,” Ben said. Tomas crossed his arms, but said nothing. Ben stretched his back as he started up the stairs. “Let’s get a little shut-eye.”

  Ada joined him on the walk up the steps. Tomas and Clarissa followed.

  Movement seemed to surprise Ben. As he tensed, Ada slipped into a defensive posture. But before she could ask what was going on, Clarissa gasped.

  “Holy shit.”

  LeFay was standing in a bathrobe by the food dispenser. “Good to see you, too,” she said.

  “Uhhh…” Clarissa stared at LeFay, shocked and slack-jawed. The cyborg she’d just spent God knew how long carrying around and trying to figure out how to reactivate was walking and talking as if nothing had happened.

  “Where have you guys been?” LeFay asked as she flipped through the settings on the food dispenser. “Damn, guess we can’t just go to the store, eh? I’m starving.”

  “You look,” started Ben. “Well, you look—”

  “Like shit. I know. We can’t all be as pretty as you. Going toe-to-toe with homicidal aliens can do that to a gal.”

  LeFay did look rough. Pieces of her skin were missing, exposing metal mesh underneath. One of her legs looked pretty mangled, pants hung on a robotic skeletal leg. “But I can do something about that. I’m just hungry and thirsty as hell.”

  “Here.” Ada reached into her pack. From it she produced a couple bags of chips and a thermos full of water. She offered them to LeFay.

  “Thank you, pretty lady.” LeFay took Ada up on her generous offer. Then she quickly ripped open and devoured both bags of chips, discarding the bags on the floor. She rapidly unscrewed the top of the thermos and downed the who
le thing, some water spilling down her chin.

  “Yeah, no problem.”

  “So this is what’s left, huh?” LeFay wiped the water from her chin and looked at the rest of the group. “Only missing the ugly bastard?” She rubbed her chin. “Damn, I was starting to like the little prick. Still, not bad, all things considered. Not bad at all. If you guys will excuse me, I’m gonna step into the old surgery suite and fix myself up. Make a gal more presentable.”

  With that, LeFay disappeared into the other room.

  Clarissa stared after her, torn on what she should do. LeFay was being LeFay, which meant she was using her bluster to deflect everyone and everything. God help her if she ever openly needed anybody else to help her with anything. A goddamn island who didn’t need anyone, that was LeFay. She’d not looked Clarissa in the eye yet. She probably couldn’t bear the idea that she was now in her debt.

  Well, get used to it, bitch. I just saved your life. Suck on that, miss ‘I don’t need anybody’.

  Of course, LeFay had also saved Clarissa’s life. And in the saving of LeFay’s life, Clarissa had managed to deactivate her and slam her body into the side of a building.

  Details.

  In the end, Clarissa let LeFay go be by herself in the surgical room. She knew it wouldn’t be as easy as LeFay was trying to make it sound. If she’d just ask for help, Clarissa could do it much faster. But LeFay was stubborn, and that was that.

  The others had put their weapons on the kitchen table, and sat down around it. Clarissa did the same.

  “We have to find a way off-planet,” said Ada.

  “And just leave these people behind to get slaughtered?” Tomas asked.

  “Look, I’m not thrilled about that part either. But this planet, these people here, they’re as good as dead or turned. No matter how you look at it, Vassar-1 has fallen.”

  “And they aren’t going to stop here,” Ben added.

  “What do you mean?” Tomas started to take his gun apart so he could clean it.

  “Their plans. They don’t stop here on Vassar-1. They’re just going to go from planet to planet, station to station, and take them all over.”

  “And you know this how?” asked Ada.

  “It’s hard to explain. You’ll just have to trust me.”

  “No offense,” Ada said. “We all love you, but that sounds like something someone who can’t be trusted would say,” she added, half facetiously and half seriously.

  “I don’t know how to explain it,” Ben said again.

  “Try,” urged Tomas.

  “He’s right,” Clarissa said. “I saw Engano’s reports. The AIC.” She hesitated. Even though it made no logical sense to care anymore, her training made it feel like a betrayal to discuss classified information. In the end, she couldn’t make herself talk details. She felt stupid for it. “The AIC has known for some time that the Oblivion plan concerned more than just Earth. We just assumed it would radiate outward from Earth. Not...” She hesitated again. “Not the other way around.”

  “So you’re saying they’re planning on hitting Earth?”

  Clarissa rubbed her temples. She suddenly felt sick. Was she really this bothered about this? It was like the act of discussing it was scrambling her brain.

  “You okay there, Morgan?” asked Ada.

  “Clarissa,” she snapped. She’d finally gotten the others to forget her cover name, and it bothered her to hear it again, even though she understood that Ada had just arrived. “Please call me Clarissa, and I’m fine. Really. Peachy.”

  Clarissa looked around the table and saw concern in all the faces. “Trust me,” she said, then stood up. “Or trust Ben. I don’t care. Either way, he’s right. This is just the start. I’m gonna go check on LeFay.”

  With that, she got up and left.

  “Ooookay, what was all that about?” asked Ada.

  “Something’s not right with her,” Tomas said.

  “We’ve all been through a lot,” Ben said. “Especially her.”

  Ada accepted that. Anyone had the right to go a little unhinged after everything they’d been through. Though if she was being honest, seeing the usually pretty stoic Clarissa acting this way disturbed her. She could see that Tomas felt the same way.

  “You know her better than me,” Ada said. Then she leaned forward, lowering her voice. She knew what Tomas was thinking, because she was thinking it too. “You’re sure she’s not Shapeless?”

  Ben looked surprised. “Of course I’m sure,” he answered, a little too quickly for Ada’s liking.

  “How can you be sure? Did you test her?”

  “I did,” Ben said.

  Ada glanced at Tomas. He crossed his arms. She turned back to Ben. “How?”

  He looked offended. “What do you mean, how? The way we always have. With extreme temperatures. In the surgical room. I watched her working on LeFay with highly charged particles. High-heat lasers. Trust me. If she was Shapeless, she couldn’t do all that. You didn’t see how involved it all was. I mean, we were all pouring sweat up there.”

  Ada frowned. “That’s not exactly the same—”

  “What, you want me to just force her to take a test?”

  “Yes,” roared Tomas. “You had no problem doing that to our people. Throwing them out of damned airlocks. Or have you forgotten about that?”

  “That was different,” Ben said.

  “How?”

  “I knew Tanisha was Shapeless,” Ben said.

  “She could be too!” Tomas bellowed, pointing at the other room.

  “Shit, keep it down, Tomas,” Ada hissed. “I don’t think they heard you over on the Atlas.”

  Tomas threw his hands up and sat back.

  Ada decided to try a different tack. “So you haven’t seen anything that looked strange to you?” she asked Ben.

  “I told you, we’re all stressed.”

  “Because here’s the thing, Ben,” Ada said. “I’m just looking at this logically. She was kidnapped by them, she was up on that ship. They could’ve easily—”

  “It’s her. Trust me.”

  Tomas crossed his arms and jutted out his lip.

  Ada sat back, searching the hardened features of Ben’s face. There was no doubt there, and no way to change his mind, at least not right now. Pointing out how comfortable Clarissa had been with playing her spy games under his nose would only make him dig in harder.

  “Sure, Ben. Whatever you say.”

  “How ya doing there, Claire?” LeFay asked casually as she heard Clarissa enter the surgery suite.

  It instantly grated on Clarissa. LeFay could push anyone’s buttons in the best of times, and Clarissa was already in a bad mood, annoyed with her inability to discuss intel with the group in the other room.

  What the hell was that all about, anyway?

  “I’m fine,” Clarissa said dismissively. “How’d you….I spent days trying to figure out how to turn your core back on. How are you now awake, up and moving around?”

  “I’m not a microwave or a toaster. You can’t just flip the switch and I turn right on. Needed to charge back up, let the power flow through every part.” LeFay controlled various mechanical arms around the surgery bed she sat up in. The arms did different things like replace her damaged skin, solder electronic pieces, and run diagnostics.

  “You’ve gotten a lot more work done,” Clarissa said. “Since I last saw you.”

  “It’s been a while since you saw me,” LeFay said.

  “You look like more machine than woman at this point.”

  “You sound like the rest of them now,” LeFay said dismissively. She didn’t have to explain who “the rest of them” were. It was everyone. It was always LeFay against everyone else.

  “Ah.”

  LeFay rolled her eyes. “They didn’t do anything. I did this to myself. Figured when the war eventually came home, I should be as souped up as possible. Become a fighting machine. The war came, but I was expecting human beings in armor with guns, not
shapeshifting aliens. If I’d known that, maybe I’d have changed my specs a bit.”

  Blake stood with his hands on his hips as he watched LeFay work. “She really is a crazy bitch,” he said.

  “That’s not fair,” Clarissa said.

  “You stick up for her a lot,” he noted with the slightest tinge of judgment.

  “And?” LeFay asked. She waited for an answer. Clarissa realized she’d missed her question.

  “What?”

  “I said, ‘And how are you?’”

  “I told you already,” Clarissa said. “I’m fine. As good as can be, you know?”

  LeFay nodded. “You sure about that?”

  Clarissa realized she was nervously fidgeting, and stopped. “What do you mean?”

  Blake rolled his eyes at her, and she gave him a nasty look.

  “C’mon, Claire. You’ve been talking to someone who isn’t here ever since we got back.”

  Clarissa’s head snapped back to LeFay. In the background, she saw Blake uncross his arms and take several steps forward, a look of concern on his face now. “How do you— What do you mean?”

  Now it was LeFay’s turn to roll her eyes. “As soon as you put that core in me, I was online. It might have taken my system several days to reintegrate, but as soon as I did, all the data was there. Everything.”

  Clarissa’s gaze focused on the corner of the surgery suite. Blake had disappeared.

  LeFay glanced over, then pantomime-whispered to Clarissa, “Are they over there right now?” She waved her hand back behind her head, a big smile on her face. “Am I getting close?”

  Something about the fact that LeFay could turn even this into a joke enraged Clarissa. “It’s not funny,” she said. “And no.”

  “So who is it, nutcase? Or is this just your imaginary friend from when you were a teenager all over again?”

  “I was four!” Clarissa snapped.

  “Sure you were,” LeFay said.

  “It’s Blake!” she shouted, feeling her cheeks burning. “It’s my dead husband!”

  LeFay’s smile disappeared.