“I’m whatever I need to be to save X,” I answered both of them. “I’d do the same for either of you. I’m not going to leave X. She wouldn’t have left me.”
“No one’s talking about leaving X,” Cassie corrected me. “But losing yourself to find her isn’t the only option.”
“I’ll do it,” Preacher said, cracking his knuckles. “I lost myself a long time ago.”
“This one’s on me,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ll break his spirit. I’ll get inside his head with minimal damage to his body. I don’t want to kill him. I need answers.”
Preacher nodded as if that was enough for him.
Cassie looked at me with a raised eyebrow as if she didn’t buy it.
“In the meantime, Wesley said Nemesis and the shapeshifter who pretended to be Monica have information,” I said. “Let’s go and see if we can get anything resembling the truth from them.”
Fourteen
Preacher spoke through his comm link, finding out where Nemesis and Laine were being held. For safety purposes, Wesley thought it best to keep them outside in the rear of the estate under heavy guard.
We made our way in that direction now. Cassie matched me stride for stride, just staring at me.
“I can feel you boring into my head with that look,” I told her.
“Good,” Cassie answered. “I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be,” I answered. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’m sure you will be, and that’s what worries me,” Cassie said. “Have you ever heard the saying ‘we make our own prisons’?”
“No, who said that?” I asked.
“I don’t remember, but that’s not the important part. What is important is that we remember every decision we make in this life has consequences. Even if we can accept and live with those consequences, it doesn’t mean that the memory won’t follow us and haunt us for the rest of our lives,” Cassie said simply. “I know X is like a sister to you. But think about what she would want and what you’re willing to do or not do to get her back. There are always other options, always another way that doesn’t walk with darkness.”
I paused as we reached the door leading outside.
I turned to the woman I had grown to like and maybe even more than like, although I couldn’t offer myself the emotional space to decide that at the moment.
“Thank you,” I told her, biting back my anger, not at her, but for the entire situation. “I know you’re trying to help.”
“Good,” Cassie said, reaching up and planting a kiss on my cheek. Her soft lips pressed against the days of hair growth on my skin. “Let’s go and see if we can get some truth out of our son.”
Cassie chuckled as I stood there shocked for a moment, soaking in her words.
“Too soon?” Cassie asked over her shoulder.
“Way too soon,” I answered, following her out the door. “There’s so much going on, my brain feels like puzzle pieces just sitting in a pile.”
It was night, and although I was exhausted, I knew that we had to do this. I’d drink caf to keep me going. In a way, that stuff was like liquid sleep, and right now, that would have to be enough.
Outside, Wesley had spared no measure of safety when it came to securing Nemesis, Laine, and their son. The large outer turrets on the estate were in their upright position from their spaces in the ground.
Along with them were two dozen armed guards in their flat black armor. A few heavy SUVs had also been rolled in from the garage. Each of these vehicles carried a massive rotating barrel weapon on top.
Although none of the weapons were pointed at Nemesis and his family, it was clear that, with a second’s notice, they could be.
Right now, Nemesis sat with Laine and his son eating a late meal. If it wasn’t for the fur on Laine and the boy, they might have passed for some human family out for a late night picnic or camping trip.
Laine caught my approach first.
She stood quickly, bringing every weapon in the compound pointing at her along with the turrets that I guessed Bapz controlled at the moment.
“Easy,” Nemesis said around a mouthful of sandwich. He also stood. “We just want to express our thanks to the man that saved our son.”
Wesley was there, along with Cryx and Preacher.
I looked over to see Preacher gripping the handle of his katana.
No one was taking any chances here. We’d already been burned by Nemesis once. I thought back to the technicians Laine had wounded in the lab. She was also the reason X was gone.
I stalked over to Nemesis and looked him in the eye. Without taking my gaze from him, I reached for the sandwich in his hand and took it from him. I bit into the thick meat and chewed, still staring at him.
“I want you to know that after what you did, I would have let them kill you.” I turned to Laine. “Both of you. But your boy doesn’t deserve to suffer for your sins. I was one of those boys who had to deal with the consequences of my parents’ decisions at an early age. They abandoned me, and because of that, I grew up on my own.”
Nemesis actually looked ashamed. He hung his head, breaking my stare. Laine, on the other hand, held my gaze. Tears sprang into her yellow feline-like eyes.
“You don’t understand,” Laine said, shaking her head. “We didn’t have a choice. You think we wanted to work for Aleron? He threatened to kill our son. I’d do anything to save him, anything.”
I took another bite of the sandwich. A twinge of guilt for taking it out of Nemesis’ hand like a bully prodded at me. I was pretty sure I needed it more than him anyway.
“Explain,” I answered. “Everything. I want to know everything. Why you look like me, if you really are from the future, the whole shape-shifting thing. Tell me.”
“Laine is my wife, and as you probably know by now, we are not human,” Nemesis answered. “We came here because the love we share for one another is not allowed in our own galaxy. Two members of our species coming together is forbidden. We left our galaxy five years ago while Laine was still pregnant with our son. We searched for a new home to begin our family.”
Nemesis paused here, looking over at Alexon, who sat on the ground nibbling on his own food. When he caught my gaze, the kid actually smiled.
Despite myself, I returned the act.
“We heard there was a planet killed by its inhabitants and deserted.” Laine picked up the story. “We came here to Earth looking for peace and a new start where we could be left alone and build our family.”
“That wasn’t to be our fate.” Nemesis’ jaw clenched as he remembered the events of the past. “I was captured near the city of New Vegas by a Galactic Government patrol. I was taken to Mars and handed over to General Shepherd, who started the Nemesis program. I was tested on, injected with serums, and turned into a mindless robot with a collar until you found me at the way station on Mars. You freed me and I repaid your kindness with lies and physical harm to you and your own. For that, I am truly sorry.”
“So that’s a start. What about the whole you being from the future thing?” Cryx blurted out, unable to keep the question in. “Was that a lie too or are you really Daniel and Cassie’s love child?”
Everyone looked over to Cryx.
She could care less, so engrossed in the tale unfolding in front of us.
One of the guards next to her chuckled. “Love child,” he repeated under his breath.
I gave him a look that would turn someone to stone.
The guard coughed and looked down at the ground.
“Were you lying about being our love child?” I asked Nemesis. “And how did you know those things about Cassie and me that were so convincing? And why do you look like me?”
“I am not from the future,” Nemesis admitted. “That was a ploy to get you to give me the AI known as X. I look like you because whatever the Galactic Government did altered my outward appearance and changed my abilities.”
“How is that even possible?” Preacher asked, running a han
d through his salt and pepper hair. “They altered your appearance?”
“I’m not sure.” Nemesis shook his head. “I always had the ability to manipulate kinetic energy but never fly. That is new to me and my species.”
“How did you know about us?” Cassie asked again. “When you first came to us on the rooftop, you were very convincing on the details you told us.”
“That was me.” Laine raised a furry hand. “For the many things we’re apologizing for, I might as well add another. In a few of my species, the ability to read minds is present. We are all a shape-shifting race, but telepathy is passed down to one out of a thousand. I was close enough when Nemesis came to visit you on the roof to read some of your thoughts and feed him the information through an earpiece he wore.”
“I also used a tool to alter my voice and pretend to be Commander Barnum from Phoenix Corp,” Nemesis admitted. “We fed you a mountain of lies to try and save our son. If you choose not to accept our apology, I understand.”
“I need someone to write a freaking timeline of all of this,” I said, swallowing the last of my sandwich. “So let me get this straight. There’s no such thing as time travel. Your alien refugees. You were experimented on by the GG. Now how do Aleron and X fit into all of this?”
“When you freed me from the collar on Mars and I fled the GG,” Nemesis picked up the story once more, “I came back to Earth to search for my wife and son. It had been three years since I had last seen them. I found them captured by the newly freed Aleron after he escaped from prison in New Vegas.”
“He was trying to use my son against me to go and infiltrate your base to steal the AI known as X,” Laine went on to explain. “Aleron was aware of my shape-shifting abilities. When Nemesis found us, Aleron leveraged our son against both of us. If we didn’t try and get the AI, he said he would kill Alexon.”
And there it was. I just stood there for a moment, part of me wishing I had another sandwich, all of me sifting through the new information. I couldn’t come up with this if I tried. It was something out of some sci-fi book.
Sure I was still pissed at Nemesis and Laine, but now I understood why they were doing what they were. I was doing the same thing for X. I was willing to do whatever it took to get her back.
“You must have heard something while you were held by Aleron.” Wesley filled the silence that fell on the group. “Why he wanted X. Especially you, Laine. You have to have read his mind.”
“I tried,” Laine answered. “Those with strong minds are much harder to get a handle on. It’s not an exact art. It’s not like I can just pick someone and whatever I want to know I can see. It’s more like traveling through a swamp of fog and searching for images.”
“Well, what did you get?” I pressed.
“Aleron met someone in his prison cell in New Vegas inside the Galactic Government compound known as the Hole.” Laine squinted as if she were trying to recall every bit of information. “Who it was I can’t tell, but they told him that the AI carried information of a weapon of great power that Immortal Corp created or found and put into hiding. The weapon was referred to as a Relic. Aleron now wants that weapon for himself.”
I just stood there shaking my head. I was familiar with Relics. Ancient artifacts from times long ago imbued with power that I didn’t understand. All I knew was that no one should have access to them, and in the wrong hands, they were deadly.
It was only because of one of these Relics that we were able to win the war against the Voy on Mars.
I looked over to Preacher. He was the one I had entrusted to hide the Relic somewhere in Dragon Hold.
“It’s not ours.” Preacher answered my unspoken question. “It has to be another one. Something else.”
“I wish I could help,” Wesley chimed in. As one of the handlers for Immortal Corp, he was second only to the Founders of the company. “I was never given information or access to any kind of Relic or weapon.”
“Where is Aleron’s base?” Cassie asked. “If you were held there, we can go back. We can get X right now.”
“I—I don’t know and that’s the truth,” Laine confessed. She looked frustrated at herself. “He kept us in a dark room. When I tried to gather information by reading others’ thoughts, I got the impression that they moved often around the lands northeast of the Badlands. I can give you a general idea, but it would be a lot of ground to cover.”
“I’ve got it!” I didn’t mean to shout, but I didn’t really care that every eye in the area swung toward me. “Laine, I have a friend I want you to meet. His name’s Spit.”
Fifteen
“What did you tell them, you filthy alien abomination?” Spit snarled as we opened the door to his cell and Laine walked in.
I was about to lay into Spit again when Nemesis caught me by the arm and slowed me down. “She can handle herself.”
True to his word, Laine sent a kick to Spit’s tender parts that made me feel sore in my own nether regions. I couldn’t help but wince as Spit’s eyes bulged out of his head.
He sank to his knees, letting out a noise from between his lips that sounded like air being let out of some kind of leaking bag.
“That’s for how you treated my son,” Laine hissed.
I looked over at Nemesis. Even he was grimacing at the force his wife used to strike Spit.
“Hold him still and I’ll do all I can to get the information you desire,” Laine told us.
Nemesis and I shouldered our way into the small cell, each taking the man by an arm and standing him up straight. He pressed him against the cold stone wall on the far side of his cell.
“You can threaten me all you want.” Spit was nearly crying. “You can torture me or starve me or whatever, but I won’t—I won’t tell you anything! I swear—”
I’ll never know what Spit was about to swear as Laine placed open palms on either side of his head and closed her yes.
Immediately, Spit went slack in my grip. I looked over to Laine to make sure this was what was supposed to happen, but her eyes were closed. Instead, I turned to Nemesis.
“Is this supposed to happen?” I asked.
“I do not know,” Nemesis confided. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her go for such a direct approach. Usually, she tries to read bits and pieces from afar, never like this.”
Laine’s face was a mask of intensity. I’m not sure she could sweat, or if she did, if it happened under her fur, but her brow was furrowed, the slender whiskers that came out of either side of her mouth twitching with her level of effort.
I leaned in to try and get through to her, asking her if she was almost done, if she was all right.
As I leaned in, Laine’s yellow eyes snapped open, frightening us both.
“Son of a Voy,” I said, jerking back.
Laine was panting.
Spit went limp in our arms to the point Nemesis and I just placed him on the ground. He was still breathing.
“Why were you so close to my face?” Laine asked, wiping her brow.
“I wanted to make sure you were getting through,” I answered. “Spit went catatonic on us and you were unresponsive. Did you get anything? You weren’t in his head for a long time.”
“Time passes differently on the mental plane,” Laine answered. “What was seconds for you was hours for me. I took all I could without performing any long term damage. I gathered all the information he knew. His name’s not Spit, by the way, it’s Reginald Alfons Crenshaw the Third.”
“This guy?” I asked incredulously at the smelly Grimm Reaper at my feet.
“Spit is a better name.” Nemesis nodded simply. “You did him a favor. His parents must have hated him at birth.”
In any other circumstances, I might have laughed. I should have even asked Nemesis and Laine where they were from, how many other alien races they knew about, or a hundred other questions on my mind, but right now, we needed a location to X.
“Reginald Alfons Crenshaw the Third was just a foot soldier,
so he didn’t know much. I can confirm the traveling circuit Aleron takes his camp on. It’s for this very reason, so his enemies will never know where he’ll be,” Laine explained. “I do know that Aleron would not harm the AI. He needs her. If she is the last living piece of tech from Immortal Corp. Only she knows where the location to this Relic can be found.”
“If X knew, she would have told me,” I said out loud. “I know she would. She wouldn’t have access to this information and keep it a secret.”
“Maybe she doesn’t even know herself,” Cassie suggested from the doorway where she, Preacher, and Wesley waited. “Maybe there’s a code or a phrase or some kind of trigger that unlocks the information.”
“There’s more,” Laine volunteered. “Reginald Alfons Crenshaw the Third also knows the name of Aleron’s cell mate in the Hole. The one who gave him the information about Immortal Corp and X holding the location to the Relic in the first place.”
“What’s his name?” Preacher pressed.
“Rival Mercer,” Laine said with a shrug. “That’s all I have at the moment.”
“It’s enough,” I said, looking out the cell toward the rest of the group. “Rival Mercer, does that name mean anything to anyone?”
Cassie and Preacher both shook their heads.
Wesley hesitated a moment then shook his own. I wasn’t sure if I was reading too much into things or if Wesley had a lead on this Rival Mercer, but I decided to let it go for the time being. A plan was already beginning to form in my mind.
“If we know the area Aleron travels in, then maybe we can call in a favor with the GG and get a satellite to comb the area,” I thought out loud. “In the meantime, I’ll take a team to go visit this Rival Mercer in the Hole in New Vegas. Even if he won’t talk, Laine can alien it out of him.”
“I’ll get on the horn with Major Valentine about use of a satellite,” Preacher volunteered. “I’m sure she or Colonel Stryfe will be able to help after our partnership on Mars.”
Nemesis: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 6) Page 9
