14.
REDEK
Redek woke to a siren blaring in his room. It was similar to the one that had sounded in the hangar, but not as loud.
Beside him, Maddie sat up, pressing her hands to her ears. “This is the worst alarm clock ever.” Her voice was strained, though, and she couldn’t look at him.
It was here.
This might be the end of the line.
“We should put some clothes on before someone comes bursting in to find out where we are,” he said, pushing the comforter back and admiring Maddie’s naked curves. “I want to be the only person in the world that’s seen that view,” he teased, taking her hand and helping her out of the bed.
They pulled their clothes on in silence. The siren stopped after a minute, and was replaced by the sound of feet jogging along the corridor to their assigned posts.
Maddie wrapped her arms around her middle, looking tiny and frail. He wished more than anything that he could have stayed with her, but it wasn’t the most sensible way of keeping her safe. He could make a real difference in a fight. That was where he knew what he was doing.
He had to leave her in the short term for the possibility of staying with her forever.
Taking a deep breath, he pulled on the last of his weapons and set his face in stone.
This was it.
This was where they were made or broken.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Maddie laced her hand though his as they joined the jogging soldiers. Redek had been given directions to where he was supposed to be meeting Tisya to get his assignment the night before, and he headed in that direction.
Inside the room was a small group. There were only twenty or so of them, not including Maddie. All were armored and armed to the teeth. They looked at Redek with apprehension, and ignored Maddie altogether.
In the center of the room was a teleporter. With the kind of clients Redek had worked for in the past, he’d seen them plenty of times and even used one more than once. The technology was incredibly expensive, but simple to use. You put in your target destination, and when you wanted to return to where you started, pressed a button on a small band that wrapped around your wrist. It was impossible to teleport hop, not unless you teleported to somewhere with another teleporter.
When he was done with Damien, the only place he could return to was this room.
“You’re all here,” Tisya said, drawing attention to where he stood beside the device. “You’ll be separated into four groups of six. We have four ships to target. You’ll teleport in and do as much damage as possible. Your lives are at stake,” he said, looking at everyone individually. “But you put them there for the lives of all who have lost loved ones to the Intergalactic Union’s terror.”
Redek knew that the IU had been indiscriminate in their colonizing of planets and bringing them under their mandate, but he’d never heard such vitriolic rhetoric before. Most planets were happy to be accepted under the IU’s wing: it was a trade organization, and their influence was normally restricted to that sphere.
But the hatred for the IU here was intense, and he wondered how much about the organization he didn’t know.
It could have just as easily been a manipulation tactic by gang leaders to maintain power on the planet, for all Redek knew, but Fitan had seemed genuine when he spoke about them being a terrorist organization.
Now wasn’t the time for that, though.
He’d square his political opinions if he made it out the other side.
Tisya read out the names and split the group into their four teams. Redek had no idea if they’d found out which ship was Damien’s and planned to send him there, but he prayed they had.
He could already feel his rage brewing at the thought of getting his hands around the neck of the bastard.
Before that, though, he had to say goodbye to Maddie.
He ignored the first group as they went through the teleporter and faced Maddie. He’d been determined to stay strong once they left the bedroom, but one look at her and he almost fell apart.
He was more than willing to lay down his life to protect her if that’s what it came down to—it was an instinct that had been honed since he first enrolled in the academy. If he could die for his charge, dying for the woman he loved was nothing.
It was the images of what could have been if they’d met under different circumstances that were tearing his walls down. Without Damien, they could have just been Redek and Maddie. They would have fallen in love and moved in together and had kids and there would have been no problems.
He could have grown old with her.
He cupped her face in his hands and wore his emotion all over his face. He didn’t care who else in the room was watching. “I love you,” he said softly, kissing each tear-stained cheek. “And I’ll be back. I’ll be standing right here again in no time.”
She smiled through the tears. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
She threw herself against him, hugging him tightly. He held her back, burying his face in her hair and committing the feel of her to memory.
He’d be back.
He had to be.
And then it was his group’s turn to leave and he had to let go of her. With a final squeeze of her hand he turned away and put his game face back on.
This wasn’t the emotionless mask he’d perfected over the years, though. This was pure fire. This was all the anger, hatred and despair that had consumed him for the past few days.
And all of it was going to hit whoever he found on the other end of that teleporter straight in the face.
They didn’t stand a chance.