Chapter Twenty-Two
Seb awoke to someone gently shaking his shoulder. He cracked open his eyes, the room about him still mostly dark. Halden stood above him, murmuring that it was time to go if they wanted to catch the shuttle to Vaticia.
He nodded and then waited until his host had continued on to the kitchen, setting some water to boiling.
Wincing at his dead arm, where Jenna had been lying all night, he gently pulled himself free, the movement waking her up.
“Is it morning?” she whispered, sounding more alert that he was. Of course, his foggy head could have something to do with the beating he’d taken yesterday. His skull throbbed in time with his pulse, as if every surge of blood through his head made the bruising on his face spread to the rest of his body.
“Halden says it’s time to go.”
She was on her feet in another blink. “I’ll use the bathroom, and we’ll be on our way.”
She hurried off. He got to his feet a little more slowly, swallowing down the urge to groan at all the aches. Hell, maybe it was suicidal, but he was hoping to run across that patrol on the way out so he could pay that bastard leader back in kind for every single place he hurt.
He stooped to grab up the blankets as Halden came over.
“Don’t bother with that, I’ll take care of it later. Besides, Talia will think it’s fun to build a fort with them when she wakes up.” Halden handed over a gently steaming mug. From the smell of it, the brew was a local kind of thick, potent tea that was quite close to coffee, but much cheaper.
“Ah yes, the age-old art of fort building.” He took a gulp of the hot beverage, hoping the caffeine would help his head a little. “I never had enough patience when I was a kid. Used to half-ass it and then get annoyed when the thing fell on top of me.”
Halden gave a short laugh, nursing his own steaming mug. “Mine were mostly outdoors in the trees with whatever branches I could find when I was trying to avoid my chores.”
Jenna returned, and Halden went back to the kitchen to make her a tea as well. They spent a few minutes making small talk, and their host offered them some traditional Ilari breakfast biscuits, as well as some fruit to take on their journey.
Once they were ready, he led them into the lavender mist of predawn, to the town square, coming onto a small bustling scene. The shuttle was perched with the back open while farmers loaded supplies into the cargo hold.
Halden waved to the only person in a CSS uniform, not standing by and watching proceedings, but actually helping people load the produce, despite the pronounced limp from what looked to be an early-tech bio-mechanical leg.
He stood back with Jenna, while Halden went to talk with Neiman and soon, the CS Soldier nodded and waved them over.
“Neiman will take you as far as the markets.” Halden offered his hand, and Seb shook it gratefully.
“Thank you, I have no way of repaying you right now, but if I’m ever able—”
Halden held up a hand. “No need. If we can’t help each other for no other reason than it’s the right thing to do, then mankind truly is lost.” He gave Neiman an affectionate slap on the back, then headed off through the small crowd of farmers.
Neiman turned to them with a friendly smile. “If you folks don’t mind keeping out of the way for a few minutes, we’ll get the rest of this load secured and wait until the crowd disperses before I take you on board. Not meant to convey passengers, so wouldn’t want my CO to get wind of it.”
“We don’t want to get you into trouble,” Jenna replied quickly.
Seb took her arm and steered her over to sit on a rough-hewn park bench. “You just sit here. I’m going to lend a hand.”
“I could help—” She started to get up again, but he set both hands on her shoulders and gently urged her down again. “No, you can’t, Mrs. Rayne.”
He made a point of looking at her pretend belly, at which she crossed her arms and huffed a sigh. “Fine. Have it your way. I’ll act like your precious feeble wife.”
He cast a glance over her. “I don’t know that anyone could ever accuse you of being feeble, even at twenty-five months pregnant.”
She took a swipe at him with her foot, but he dodged out of the way with a laugh. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Leaving Jenna fuming, he pitched into a line of people loading milk and eggs. They greeted him with ease and friendliness, leaving his guts pinching as he wondered how they’d react if they knew who he really was.
Within less than fifteen minutes, the cargo hold was packed down and people began disappearing. Neiman chatted amiably with them, until the last person had gone on their way, leaving the square empty.
“Right. You two get settled in the back. I’ll have to close you in from the outside. We’ll be at the outer Vaticia markets in around an hour.”
Seb helped Jenna to her feet, murmuring a thanks as they headed up the ramp. While he scanned the inside, the hatch whooshed into place with a hiss. He didn’t like being sealed into what appeared to be an inescapable cargo hold, but this was their best way of getting to the crash site by the end of the day.
As the shuttle rumbled to life, Jenna did a lap, peering into crates, lifting tarps, and generally being nosy.
“Find anything interesting?” He crossed his arms, watching her procession.
“If I’m right about my hunch…” A crate seemingly filled with salt, stacked on several identical crates, distracted her. “Why would they be transporting this much salt? There’s no mine in this district.” She removed the lid and plunged her hand into the white grains. A second later, a triumphant expression crossed her face, and she tugged, coming up with a weapon.
“They’re transporting a lot more than farm produce.”
Seb stepped forward, gripping what looked to be a gun and unwrapping the protective sheeting to reveal the stock. “This is a UEF-issued electromagnetic pistol.”
She took the weapon back from him to examine it. “You’re right. Didn’t a shipment of weapons go missing between the Ilari base and a frontline outpost a few months ago?”
“We didn’t hear about it on the Knox.” Maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised the UEF had apparently covered something like that up, but he was, and it left him questioning what else the UEF kept hidden from its soldiers.
“Command Intelligence assumed they were taken by CSS forces. But if the rebels got them—”
“Then that’s probably not such a bad thing,” he finished. “So let’s leave them have their toys and hope they take a few of the bastards out for us.”
She relented, but didn’t look convinced as he took the weapon, carefully rewrapped it, plunged it back into the crate of salt, and then secured the lid. Once done, he sat with his back against the stack, glancing up at Jenna, who had all kinds of contrition over her face.
“You want to do something with this information, don’t you?”
She came down next to him, reaching out to take his hand. “After we’ve seen the crash site. I just have to work extra hard at making sure we survive so we can get this information back to the Knox. If we could make contact, maybe join forces with the rebels, it might be the turning point the UEF needs.”
He couldn’t disagree. They’d come this far. One quick glimpse of the wreckage, and they could head home armed with intelligence that might give him a small chance of not being completely buried for the number of offenses he’d committed since Jenna had dropped into his life.
Neither of them said anything else for the rest of the hour until the shuttle set down. The hatchway opened and Neiman let them out, wishing them well as they went on their way.
The early morning markets bustled with people buying and selling goods, so it was easy for the two of them to blend into the crowds. Jenna led them out, heading away from the holy city looming in the distance, the sun rising behind it, casting wispy golden fingers of light over the buildings.
The crash site was a few miles south and Seb estimated that with any luck, they’d be there by lunchtime. And then finally he would know if he could bury in his mind the man he’d called a friend once and for all.
…
Seb had been so preoccupied with getting to the crash site, he’d never for one second considered what they might find when they got there. The answer, apparently, was a dozen CS Soldiers in the area, which was cordoned off for a good five hundred feet in every direction.
“Well, this sucks.” They’d stopped by a fallen, thick, weathered trunk on the side of the road that had obviously been used by travelers as a resting place—close enough to see the patrol and half-crumpled pod, but far enough away that they hadn’t attracted any attention… Yet.
Jenna scrutinized the men, probably picking out their guarding patterns or something equally secret agent-like. “My guess, they’re stripping the craft of anything useful, probably under the pretense of destroying the superior technology so as not to tempt the people of Ilari toward evil.”
“And the truth is?”
Her features tightened. “They’ll be taking it to a secret base where they retrofit some of their older ships to fight us. Looks old and clunky on the outside, but it’s all new and deadly on the inside. The Pontifex tends to have double standards when it comes to what’s good enough for the people of Ilari, compared to him finding a way to beat the UEF out of the Brannon System once and for all. Only a select handful of his most-trusted advisors know the truth of the technologies used over the years.”
“That explains a lot about how they’ve managed to meet us push for push all these years. But doesn’t explain how only a select handful of his most-trusted advisors and one CI agent knows about it.”
“For a while, one of those trusted advisors was a contact of mine. But apparently I wasn’t the only one he was sharing secrets with. He got careless, and then he got dead.”
A commotion roused the distant CS Soldiers to alert. Without a word, he and Jenna shifted off the log and moved around to crouch behind it.
“What’s got their panties all bunched up?” he muttered as the soldiers fell into formation.
“I have no idea, but considering how agitated they are, it can’t be anything good.”
She’d hardly finished saying the words, when the drone of aircraft reached them. Seb looked up to the horizon, finding three too-familiar looking jets whizzing toward them, pursued by four older CSS ships.
“Great. We just get here and the UEF finally decide to send a team in for a flyover inspection.”
Typical. If the UEF had moved their collective asses, he could’ve been sitting pretty in his cockpit with a bird’s-eye view of the crash site, not crouched behind a log in the firing line after defying orders and spending nearly two days getting here.
“We can use this to our advantage.” Jenna reached under her cloak, into the bulk at her belly, and produced a gun. “Go in while they’re distracted and get a closer look at the escape pod.”
“And if my own squad opens fire on me?”
She shrugged, not looking too concerned about the possibility. “You wouldn’t be the first soldier to be taken down by friendly fire. But I’m pretty sure they’ll be distracted by the dozen men on the ground with bigger guns and the four ships currently trying to pluck their wings.”
“Just when I start thinking you’re not some coldhearted, too-damned-logical CI droid,” he muttered, checking the gun’s power pack.
“Don’t worry, I’ll watch your back.” She took out a second gun and then an automatic sighter, attaching the piece of sniper equipment to the top.
No point in asking if the girl knew how to use the thing, it was obvious in the way she expertly fitted the tech and then settled the gun in her grip.
“One of these days, I swear I’m going to stop being surprised at the tricks you’ve got up your sleeve.”
“I hope not.” She sent him a grin. Between the two of them, she was going to enjoy this far more than he would.
“Stay safe,” he murmured, before planting a quick, too-brief kiss on her mouth. She replied with the same as he got to his feet, her attention already turning to the soldiers forming defensive positions as the jets closed in, whipping back and forth in the near distance as the UEF fighter pilots tried to lose their tail.
Seb waited until the soldiers had their backs turned, tracking the jets as they took a long sweep into the near distance. He took off, running as fast as he could while trying to keep a low profile. Halfway across the open space, one of the CSS ships came down in flames, and while not close enough for him to take any shrapnel, he still hit the ground, ducking as a few stray clumps of dirt spat around him.
He was up again in another second, as a waft of black smoke billowing across the field blurred his view of the pod. A couple of CS Soldiers split off from the main group, no doubt to check the latest wreckage. Seb swore under his breath as they turned, because he was going to end up right in their line of sight. Pushing himself, he sprinted the remaining distance to the shallow crater, gunshots peppering his feet a second before he slid down the lip and came to rest against the crumpled, charred side of the Farr Zero pod.
The shooting intensified, but it didn’t seem to be aimed at him. No doubt Jenna had drawn their fire, leaving the CS Soldiers firing on both the jets—when they swooped over—and her sniper position. He only hoped she stayed low and didn’t take any stupid risks for him…well more stupid than hiking this far into enemy territory. Another muted boom reverberated as a second CSS ship fell victim to the Knox jets. The enemy ship had exploded in midair, raining droplets of fire across the landscape.
Sliding along the side of the pod, and trying to keep below the mound of dirt amassed from the impact, he clambered to the front where the hatch would have been located.
The thing was in worse condition that he’d imagined. At some point, the pod had caught fire, though it was impossible to tell if that was secondary to the crash. Half the hatchway had been torn off, and everything that could have melted had, leaving the insides an unidentifiable mess. Lawler’s body could easily be in there, but it was impossible to tell. If the fire had burned hot enough, even his bones wouldn’t have withstood the heat.
Seb crouched, swearing a long string of curses. This trip had been a waste. Seeing the wreckage didn’t tell him squat. He’d put them on the line for nothing, was no closer to getting any kind of answers, no definitive conclusion to put all this behind him.
He rammed an elbow into the wreckage, expending some of the fury, but leaving an ache radiating up his arm. It was probably a lot less than he deserved. The only way to ensure this wasn’t a complete balls-up would be to make it back to the Ilari base with the intel about the rebels.
Shifting, he glanced around the edge of the wreckage. The two remaining CSS ships were playing defense against the three Knox jets. Having cleared the way, another UEF ship was approaching—this one an armed personnel carrier that could take small teams of soldiers and insert them into conflict or hot zones. Had the UEF decided to put boots on the ground to inspect the wreckage? Well didn’t that just beat all. On the bright side, he and Jenna might have an easy ride back to the Knox. The downside? He’d have to face the music sooner rather than later.
One of the jets broke off from pursing the last CSS ships and wheeled around to escort the armed personnel carrier. Both ships opened fire on the CS ground soldiers, sending them scattering.
Seb took advantage of the anarchy, pushing up and launching himself over the lip of the crater, keeping low as he sprinted back to the log where he’d left Jenna.
She didn’t spare him a glance as he came down beside her, keeping up her sporadic firing at the CSS, creating more confusion.
“What’d you see?” she asked him, popping off a few more shots.
“Nada. It’s all burned. Couldn’t tell if there was a body in there or not. So I still have no idea if he died in the crash or escaped.”
“Sorry.” She brought her gaze up from the sight, pulling the gun down from its perch. “I know this meant a lot to you.”
“Try telling that to the panel when I front up for court-martial.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, loosening some dirt he’d gotten showered with.
“You think Yang will take it that far?”
The drone of the ships overhead changed, and he glanced over the log to see the CS ships and soldiers had all scattered, leaving the personnel carrier to set down not far from the pod.
“I guess we’ll find out sooner rather than later.” He shoved the gun Jenna had given him into the back of his pants and stripped off the voluminous coat, revealing his Knox shipwear so the friendlies wouldn’t accidentally shoot him. “Stay behind me until they know it’s us.”
Jenna gave a quick nod, then also stripped out of her coarse clothes and shoved them in her pack, which she slung on her back this time like it was meant to be carried.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Not in the slightest.” He pushed to his feet and held a hand out to help her up. As he stepped around the log, he kept his hands out to the side. The personnel carrier’s engines had remained online—probably to be ready for a quick take off—while the hatchway cycled open, revealing two figures. They didn’t wait for the ramp to lower but jumped to the ground, guns drawn and jogging straight toward him instead of heading for the crashed pod.
The why of it became apparent as he recognized Bren and Alpha. So they weren’t here to inspect the crash. They were here to retrieve him. Shit. That was either going to be very good, or very, very bad. He was betting on the latter.
He lowered his hands, shifting to bring Jenna to his side as he met up with his CO and former-CO. They both had varying degrees of barely controlled anger on their faces.
“Sub-Lieutenant Rayne,” Alpha greeted.
Aw hell. He was really in the crap house if Alpha was referring to him by rank.
“Having a nice holiday?” Bren asked, a note of steel in her voice.
“Sirs,” he returned, adding a salute. “It wasn’t my first preference in destination, but it’s been interesting. How did you find me?”
Alpha shot him a look that told him it was a stupid question. “Where else were we going to look? This is the only place you’d go.”
“You know, Rayne, the amount of stupid you’re rocking is blowing my mind.” Bren’s tone was almost conversational, but there was no missing the pissed-off in her expression. “Not only did you escape lockup—which you’re going to explain, by the way—but you also decided to bring your girlfriend along on your suicide mission. Who, I’m assuming, was supposed to have started at her own post on the Ilari base by now.”
Seb glanced at Jenna, but she wasn’t giving anything away. There was no post for Jenna—they’d forged and fabricated that. But the tiny detail—that she’d only meant to stay with him for a few days—was the first thread of the lie. And he could see it all unraveling from here.
“There’s a really good explanation for that,” he blurted out. Okay, so he didn’t have one right now. But give him two minutes alone with Jenna, and they could get a story ironed out. Why not add one more to the avalanche of falsehoods he’d already told?
“And we’ll be very interested to hear it,” Alpha said, taking Jenna’s arm. “But right now, we need to get off the ground before the CSS send reinforcements.”
He clenched his jaw as he nodded, because the best thing he could do was cooperate, not blabber. Yep, there was a whole lot of cooperation coming up in his near future if he wanted to keep his spot on the squad.
They jogged to the personnel carrier, and maybe he was being a paranoid son of a bitch, but Alpha kept himself planted between Jenna and him the whole way over. And once they were on board and Bren gave the waiting pilots the order to take off, Alpha also managed to sit himself between them.
Jenna shot him a quick, concerned look as the personnel carrier gained a small amount of altitude and then leveled off. So, maybe he wasn’t the only one imagining Alpha was keeping them apart. Which was going to make it damn hard to ensure they had their story straight before they were questioned.
Hell, this whole thing was going to come undone faster than a jet hitting the mesosphere with no shields. But he didn’t care what that would mean for him. So he might lose his post, but if the truth came out about Jenna, CI would make sure she disappeared for good this time. In the most permanent way.
Maybe it was time to hit eject. He’d never thought about doing anything other than being a fighter pilot, but since Lawler, everything had been slowly unraveling. And his time on the ground, speaking with Halden, seeing the truth of Ilari he’d never before considered, it left him wondering what he was really fighting for and why. The glory? The adrenaline high? The next promotion? Compared to people like Halden, who were fighting for a peaceful existence and to keep their families safe, his hollow goals made him one selfish bastard.
He could make a real difference. With the information about the rebels they’d inadvertently uncovered, maybe all the things he’d done would actually mean something.
“I suppose Stanton will be waiting to question me when we get back to the Knox.”
“Stanton is first in line to speak with you,” Bren answered. “But it won’t be on the Knox. We’re heading to the base.”
His heart skipped an uneasy beat or two. The questioning would be bad enough, but he’d counted on the advantage of being on home turf. On the base, where he didn’t have people like Yang to back him up— Hell, he could end up in a cell before he got back to the ship. And Stanton was the last person he wanted to give the information to. The agent could just as easily bury the intel or completely discount it. He needed to know whoever got the information would use it to a full advantage.
“Why aren’t we headed back to the ship?” He tried to keep his tone light, not conveying his concern, but wasn’t sure he’d made the mark.
Alpha turned to look at him, expression landing somewhere between sympathy and vexation. “Because we have to assess you as a security risk before we let you anywhere near the ship.”
His heart crashed into the inside of his ribs, but he didn’t know whether to laugh or curse. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Alpha leaned in closer. “I don’t think you realize how much trouble you’ve put yourself in. After everything that’s happened in the past few months, the enemies we’ve discovered in our own ranks. Did you really think you could escape lockup and waltz around behind enemy lines without raising questions?”
Well, when Alpha put it like that, yeah, it was easily the dumbest thing he’d ever done. The problem was, he hadn’t thought. Not beyond his burning need to see Lawler dead for what he’d done.
“I’m not a security risk. I’m an FP squad member.”
Alpha glanced away from him. “Yeah, well so was Lawler.”
The words landed like a blast to the chest, radiating shock and pain through his body.
“Jesus. You can’t really think that. You can’t think I’m anything like him.” The words came out hoarse, his throat tight.
“It doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what Stanton thinks. And right now, he has you pegged for a CSS mole.”
He surged to his feet, yanking out of Alpha’s grip when his friend tried to grab his arm. A few short, agitated steps took him to the rear bulkhead of the carrier, and then he had nowhere else to go. He braced both hands against the wall—it was either that or break a few knuckles taking his frustration out. Lowering his head, he sucked in a ragged breath, grappling with the smoldering going on in his chest.
Goddamn it. This was what it had come to? He’d made some mistakes, yeah. Maybe he could have gone about things a little more smartly. But hell, comparing him to Lawler kicked him in the guts. Filled his whole body with acid until he felt like he was burning from the inside out. He was nothing like Lawler. And if Stanton didn’t get a clue about that real fast, they were going to have a serious problem.
“Seb.” Jenna’s hand landed on his shoulder. He dragged a hand over his face before glancing at her.
“They’re actually going to let you talk to me?” He shot a glare past her to Alpha and Bren, who were making no secret of the fact they were watching every word closely.
“Don’t let Stanton win,” she murmured quietly. “He’ll want you emotionally unstable. It’ll be easier to trip you up.”
She came up against him, and like there was magic in her touch, the turmoil within him settled, draining away and leaving him feeling wrung out. Despite their audience, she kissed him, though it was arguably chaste. She shifted so it probably looked like she was hugging him, but left her mouth close to his ear.
“Whatever you tell them, keep it as close to the truth as you can, and you’re less likely to slip up if the lie isn’t complicated. You needed to see the wreckage for yourself. Some random MP didn’t secure your cell properly, and you simply walked out of lockup.”
“Don’t worry about me. What about you?” He smoothed a hand up and down her back, taking a second to revel in the simplicity of having her against him. God, he didn’t want to let the possibility into his head, but what if this was their last moment together?
“If you’ve learned anything about me, it should be that I’m a survivor.”
He could hear the smile in her voice, so he leaned back to set a palm against her cheek, taking in her green eyes. The first thing he’d noticed about her, and would no doubt be the last thing he remembered of her for a long time to come.
“I don’t want to lose you.” The words came out rough, with no artifice whatsoever. “You might survive, but I—”
The rest of the thought got lost in the absolute yawning nothingness he could see before him. Whatever the outcome of their little adventure, he couldn’t see any kind of future for himself. He’d never once been scared in all the years he’d been on FP squad, no matter how many deadly battles he’d flown into. But right now, he was terrified.
“You’ll be fine, Seb. We both will be. Just not together.” The words were firm, but her expression was wavering.
He blew out a ragged breath, setting his forehead against hers. “Yeah, and how am I supposed to live with that?”
“I don’t know. But you’ll be alive. That’s all that matters.”
“Is it really all that matters?”
The sound of the engines changed as the shuttle set down, stopping Jenna from answering. Alpha and Bren both stood, but Seb shifted to put his back to them as he leaned in to kiss Jenna one last time. It was hard and desperate—nothing about it sweet or simple—but that pretty much summed up their relationship.
Jenna grabbed a handful of his shirt, right over his pounding heart, kissing him back just as fervently. But instead of making him feel better, it only made the churning in his guts turn to stone.
She pulled back, her expression determined as she looked up at him. “It matters, because I can survive elsewhere in the universe as long as I know you’re alive.”
But he didn’t want Jenna elsewhere in the universe. He wanted her by his side where he could love her just a little bit more every day.
Before he could reply, she stepped out of his embrace, and then around him to where Bren and Alpha were waiting. When she reached them, Alpha took her arm, as though he thought she might otherwise try to make an escape.
Jenna didn’t seem bothered by it, but she sent the guy a hard look. “This isn’t going to make sense to you, but if you’re going to separate us, don’t leave Seb alone. Not even for a second. His life is in danger.”
Both Alpha’s eyebrows shot up. “On our own base?”
Jenna’s features tightened with impatience. “Yes, on our own base. But I’m going to take care of it shortly. Just get me some face time with Stanton, and it’ll all be over.”
Though he’d already been worked over emotion-wise since stepping foot on the shuttle, her words made his heart go into a free fall. What the hell was she playing at?
“Jenna, what are you going to do?” he demanded as Bren took his arm and they started walking off the ship.
When they got outside, Colonel Cameron McAllister was waiting for them with a contingent of base security officers. Alpha briefly greeted Cam, then split off in another direction with Jenna. She glanced over her shoulder, gaze full of regret.
“Good-bye, Seb.”
“Jenna, wait!” He pulled his arm from Bren’s grasp, but before he could go after her, the CAFF stepped into his path, Cam clamped a tight grip on his shoulder, and the three base security officers shifted into his peripheral, hands on their weapons.
Bren took his arm in a pinching grip, hard enough for him to get a clue that he better not try to escape. “Sorry, Seb, but maybe you can see her when this is all over, like she said.”
“Bren, you don’t understand. You can’t let her see Stanton. It’s too dangerous—”
Cam cast him an unimpressed glare. “I don’t know what the two of you think is going to happen, but I can assure you, base security is the highest it’s ever been. Especially since two of our own managed to so easily sneak out of here yesterday morning.”
For a wild second, he almost blurted out the truth, about who Jenna really was and why he’d done all the things he had. But that would still result in exactly the same thing he was trying to avoid: CI finding out that Jenna was still alive and finishing what they started. Speak up or keep quiet—he couldn’t see a way out of this without risking the only thing that mattered to him. Jenna’s life.