Chapter Sixteen
At some point on this mission, Cam had lost all of the filters he’d always applied when dealing with Theresa Brenner. Except, he couldn’t have cared less. In fact, he was pretty sure he would never care again.
How had he never realized this tough, brazen, no-nonsense woman was also incredibly caring and compassionate on the inside? The kind of woman he could see himself falling for fast and without a fight, because she’d be everything he’d ever wanted.
Yet, as much as he’d come to see her for the person she really was, old habits died hard, and he couldn’t completely forget she was Jordie Brenner’s sister. The worry that somewhere deep inside her, those less desirable traits that had made Jordie such a moron were lurking, ready to pounce and destroy anything that developed between them.
Whatever the case, deep into enemy territory obviously wasn’t the time or place to be sorting this out.
The sun had risen above the horizon, bringing the slightest hint of warmth with it.
Neve started fidgeting, and he figured if she wasn’t already awake, she soon would be. With a few murmured words to Bren, the two of them climbed out of their own bedroll, the crisp morning air chasing away any lingering tendrils of sleepiness.
While Bren went to their packs, presumably to scrounge up some breakfast, he got the small fire started. Just as Bren sat down next to him and handed over an MRE, Neve sat up, then scrambled from the bedroll.
She came over, and like the evening before, sat down in between them despite the lack of space. He was beginning to think she liked being squeezed in the middle. A comfort thing? For all he knew, it was something all kids did.
Bren handed Neve an MRE and some water, making small talk since the little girl still seemed half asleep.
A low rumbling vibration in the distance caught his attention—a sound he knew well.
Bren glanced at him over Neve’s head, concern in her gaze, since she’d obviously heard it as well. A ship was closing in. Maybe it was just a coincidence and it’d fly over and continue on elsewhere, or maybe it was the CSS returning to the destroyed village for whatever reason.
“I’ll go check it out,” Bren offered, already setting her half-eaten MRE aside.
He sent her a single nod, slapping what he hoped was a reassuring smile on his face as Neve passed a glance between the two of them.
Though he hated to sit back and wait for Bren to return with intel, she was the better choice. If the ship happened to only fly overhead and not set down, Bren would be more likely to identify the vessel, give him an idea of personnel onboard, and what they might be up to.
She went to one of the larger pieces of machinery on the outer side of their shelter, looking at the horizon to the east. The rumble of the ship got closer, sounding like it was flying low.
Glancing back, she nodded to indicate he should come over. With a murmur at Neve to stay by the fire, he got up and went to her.
“Sounds like they’re heading straight for us,” she said as he stopped beside her. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to scout. They’ll likely see me.”
Even as she finished saying the words, the ship appeared above the trees in the distance.
“CSS shuttle,” Bren informed him. “Likely a supply runner.”
“Bringing supplies to the village?” he asked. “The CSS didn’t bother telling their own people that they’d destroyed the entire town? No one’s going to need supplies here today.”
The ship passed over their shelter, getting lower as it dropped into the adjacent field, and they moved to get a better view. Despite him telling her to stay put, Neve came over, hovering a few steps away, face and posture tense.
“It’s okay.” He held out a hand for her and she came over to stand next to him.
Over in the field, the hatchway of the ship opened, but it wasn’t CS soldiers disembarking from the cargo bay, it was a group of people in plain clothes. A single man in a CSS pilot’s uniform was amongst them. A few of the men looked vaguely familiar.
“I think they’re people from the village we were at yesterday,” he said in a low voice to Bren, who nodded.
“That man, the one next to the CSS pilot, I’m almost certain that’s Seb’s contact, Halden, from the way Seb described him,” Bren replied. “If it is him, the pilot is with the rebels as well.”
“He obviously got your message.” He hadn’t expected the guy to turn up here, though.
Seb had trusted Halden, so did he take that on face value and own up to who they really were? They wouldn’t be able to conduct their own search without raising some questions, while that group was doing the same thing.
“What are you thinking?” Bren asked after watching the group by the shuttle organize themselves.
“I think we haven’t got much left to lose.”
“Take the risk and come clean? Ask them if they’ve heard anything about what might have happened to Seb and the rest of your men?”
“It’s a gamble, but increases our chances of finding them quicker.”
“Agreed.”
Good. He liked it when they were on the same page. Purely for operational sake. It was always easier to move forward when the team all had the same goals and motivation.
And maybe he liked it on a personal level as well, that he and Bren seemed to be on the same wavelength.
“Let’s move.”
They returned to their small camp to douse the fire and pack their rucksacks.
He remained alert as they stepped out from behind the machinery, keeping Neve between him and Bren. There was no reason to think the villagers would be hostile toward them. Still, any action behind enemy lines could prove dangerous if he let his guard down.
The CSS pilot saw them first, alerting the group who fell silent and watched them warily as they approached. Neve was definitely acting as a buffer, though, because more than a few people visibly relaxed once they saw the little girl with them.
“Can we help you?” the man standing next to the CSS pilot asked. The one Bren thought was Seb’s contact. There was a tight note of caution in his voice, proving that he was smart and probably not taking their trio at face value.
“I hope so,” Cam replied, stopping a few feet away, giving them enough distance so if they had to make a run for it, at least Bren and Neve would have a chance of making it while he laid down cover. “Are you Halden?”
An edge of suspicion crept into the man’s expression. “Who wants to know?”
“I believe we have a mutual friend who came to visit you yesterday. Sebastian?”
Halden shared a quick, shuttered glance with the CSS pilot. “Take everyone else and get started, I’ll take care of this.”
The pilot led the group of around ten people off toward the village, where wispy tendrils of smoke still rose from the ruins.
“You’re UEF?” Halden asked once they were alone. He glanced pointedly at Neve, before shifting his attention to Bren. “You radioed in last night and talked to James.”
“Yes, I’m Bren. This is Neve. We found her living in an abandoned farmhouse outside your village.”
A shadow of familiar sorrow passed through Halden’s expression. He crouched down to put himself at eye level with the little girl.
“Hi, Neve. I have a daughter about your age. Her name is Talia, and she’s always hungry.”
Neve gave a shy smile. “Me, too!”
“Well isn’t that something.” Halden gave a quick laugh. “If you head into the shuttle, you’ll find all sorts of food. Fruit and fresh bread. You can eat anything you like.”
“Really?” Neve’s eyes widened, like she’d never been told anything better in her life. She looked up at Bren and him, as if she needed their permission.
“You go ahead,” Cam murmured. “I promised you a feast, didn’t I?”
“Thank you!” Neve flung herself into his leg, squeezing tight and then letting go so fast, he didn’t have time to react. She repeated the hug attack on Bren, then scampered into the ship, disappearing from sight.
“Thanks,” he said to Halden. “I’m not sure when the last time was she had any actual food, and we’ve only been able to give her military-issued protein meals since we found her.”
“The way I hear it, those MREs are probably better for her after being half starved to death than anything I could offer. She’s lucky you found her.” Halden held out his hand, and Cam shook it.
“So, were you here when this happened?” Halden gestured toward the village, where his small group had started scouring the remains of the houses.
“No, we arrived after,” Bren replied.
“No sign of survivors?” Halden asked, though from his tone, it seemed he already might have guessed the answer.
“I had a quick look last night, but it was dark, and hard to get close with everything still burning.” He shook his head in resignation. “But no, there weren’t any signs of survivors. I’m hoping most of them escaped, maybe went to the next village—”
Halden’s dour shift in expression stopped him short.
“Do you know something?” Bren asked, a note of dread in her voice.
“We got a few reports through various sources. Both from the CSS and the rebels. And while some of the details didn’t match up, they all had the same conclusion. No one survived. It was a sneak attack before dawn. The CSS had heard the rebels were holding an important meeting here, and instead of trying to capture them, they quietly took out the people we had standing guard on the perimeter and razed the entire town while everyone else was sleeping. It was a sophisticated and calculated attack we didn’t see coming. We came this morning to bury the dead.”
Cam’s pulse spiked, thrumming through his body on a surge of apprehension.
“And Seb? My other men? What about them?”
Halden shook his head. “I’m sorry, I haven’t had any specific reports on them. But if they were sleeping in the village…”
They wouldn’t have all been sleeping, but if they’d stayed to help fight with the rebels, they were dead, just like everyone else. No survivors. Halden didn’t need to finish that sentence. The guy gripped him on the shoulder, shooting him a sympathetic look.
“I need to go help the others. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.” He nodded, and set off toward the charred remains of the village.
“We still don’t know anything for sure,” Bren said stubbornly. “They might have camped outside the village. They might have escaped.”
“You’re right.” Despite the stone in his guts, he refused to believe they’d all been killed. “Until we see some kind of evidence, I’m going to assume they made it out.”
“Is there protocol?” Bren had a willful gleam of hope in her gaze
Protocol? That’d gone out the window around twenty-four hours ago.
“If things go to shit, protocol is to pull out, cross back over the lines, and regroup at the rover. For anyone separated from the group, we give it twenty-four hours before heading back to base.”
“That’s probably what they’re doing now. We should make a start. It’ll take at least a few days to get back across the lines, and we’re probably a few hours behind them, but we’ve got a twenty-four-hour buffer.”
Bren had pinned all of her hope on this one eventuality. And while he wanted to believe it as much as she did, experience told him this probably wasn’t going to work out all rainbows and sunshine. The only thing he knew for certain was the risk for the two of them to continue with the mission objective had become too great. He’d made his call, but that still left the reason that’d brought Bren out here.
“What about Shen?”
A shadow of pain crossed her features, but she quickly hid it behind her CAFF mask. “There comes a point where we have to admit it’s too risky to move forward. Once we know what happened to Seb and the others, we’ll reassess our options to recover my pilot.”
Sensible and reliable even when things were going to hell. No wonder he was falling for her.
“And Neve?” He kept his words low and quiet, even though the little girl wasn’t within earshot.
“We take her with us,” Bren replied, as if this decision should have been obvious.
“She’ll slow us down.” He didn’t know why he was pointing that out when there was no way he was leaving this godforsaken side of Ilari without her.
“Which is why we should get going ASAP.”
“We probably should.” His gaze was drawn to the village, where people were already starting to bring bodies out.
“You want to help them.” Bren spoke the words he’d left unsaid. “It’s not relevant to the mission or our responsibility.”
No, it wasn’t, and maybe during any other mission, he would have said the same thing, managed to disconnect himself and soldier on. But between his perceptions of Bren shifting and finding Neve, his emotions had shoved themselves into the equation, and he couldn’t find a way to disengage the two.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Bren said when he didn’t answer her.
“We can spare a few hours before we set out.”
Cam ducked into the ship, leaving his and Bren’s packs, then found Neve with a bread roll in one hand and apple in the other, sitting on a spread out tarp. He asked her to stay in the ship and gave her a radio, telling her to use it if she needed them for anything while they were in the village. She seemed happy enough, pointing out that Winky, her pink cat doll also had its share of food and they were having a picnic.
He left her chatting away happily to the ragged toy, joining Bren where she stood waiting for him.
The two of them picked their way through the charred ruins of the village and found Halden in what had once been the town square.
“We’d like to help you before we leave,” Cam said as they stopped in front of the other man.
“Actually, I was just coming to find you.”
From Halden’s tone and the tightness in his expression, Cam’s guts got heavy, as if he’d eaten bricks for breakfast, not an MRE.
“Problem?” He couldn’t get his brain to form anything other than the single word.
“Something you need to see.” Without waiting for an answer, Halden turned and headed back the way he’d come.
Bren looked at him, but he couldn’t meet her concerned gaze.
He followed Halden to the far side of the square, to what would have been the communal eatery. Halden picked something up, setting on a blackened stone table, one of the only things not destroyed.
Cam recognized what was left of the item—it was a rucksack, identical to the ones he and Bren had been carrying. When it had melted, the secret seam had been revealed where the radio and other identifying UEF items had been stashed.
“Bodies?” Cam asked grimly, handing the pack off to Bren, who also had a quick search through it. Possibly to work out whose pack it’d been. But there wouldn’t likely be any personal items inside to give that answer.
“By the back door. Hard to tell how many, because of the way the roof collapsed. It’ll take some time to clear the debris.”
“We better get started, then.” He headed out of the building and around to the back to tackle the wreckage from the outside.
As he began, Bren joined him, and the two of them fell into an efficient routine.
The sun rose higher, and the hours passed quickly, as one by one, they pulled bodies out of the building. All burned beyond recognition, as nearly all of the people who’d died in this village were. But after clearing the building, they had four bodies. Likely male from the size and shape. There was no way to tell for sure, but four men plus the UEF rucksack equaled a fairly definitive answer in his mind.
Seb and his three men had been killed in this CSS attack.