She had gone too far again. Farther than ever before. She knew this. He did not strike her, did not choke her. But he gripped her hand tightly, nearly crushing her fingers.
"We Earthlings may cage aliens," he said. "But you Bahayans serve them!"
He pulled her toward a glass display down the hall. And Maria gasped.
She saw Santelmos inside.
They weren't much larger than Crisanto, who still hid in her pocket. Barely larger than dandelion puffs. But while Crisanto shone brightly, at least when awake and out in the air, these Santelmos glowed dimly. They seemed barely able to hover, like balloons running out of helium. The aliens kept dipping toward the bottom of the enclosure. But whenever they hit the floor, electricity sparked, and they floated up again.
"They're sick," Maria said. "They shouldn't be so dim. And they need a dark place to sleep! Even just a hollow log or hole in the wall. And are you feeding them? They can eat soil or leaves or moss, anything with organic nutrients. They'll die like this!"
The general stared through the glass at the trapped Santelmos. "Oh, my dear, I know how to keep them alive. For a very long time."
"They're babies," she whispered. "Look at how small they are."
"They are enemy aliens who've been helping the Red Cardinal," the general said. "For that they must suffer. Watch, my little rose. Watch the justice of Earth."
He flipped a switch on the wall.
Electricity flooded the enclosure.
The young Santelmos fluttered back and forth, shocked again and again. And they began to scream.
Maria had never heard Crisanto make a sound. She had not realized these aliens could make sounds.
She reached toward the switch, wanting to flicked it off. But Ward caught her wrist. The electricity kept pumping.
"Look at them, little rose." He gripped her head, turned it toward the pane of glass. "See how they suffer. They fought against me. This is my justice."
"Stop hurting them," she whispered, still trapped in his grip. "Please."
He released her. She bolted forward and hit the switch. The electricity died, and the Santelmos seemed to wilt. They glided toward the floor, seemed to remember it was electric, then hovered up again, dimmer than ever.
"This is what happens to my enemies," the general said. "You do not want to be my enemy."
Maria spun toward him. She could not curb her anger. "You're brave when it comes to hurting babies, aren't you? But when adult Santelmos attacked your forces, they butchered you!"
He pulled her away from the glass pane. "Come with me."
She struggled. But he dragged her down the starship corridors. Every soldier they passed stood at attention. Maria looked at them pleadingly, but nobody would meet her eyes, let alone help.
Ward dragged her into a cabin, and he locked the door behind him. There was a bed, a table with a bowl of fruit, and huge windows facing planet Bahay. A fireplace crackled, a katana rested on the mantle, and leather-bound books covered a shelf. Clearly, these were General Ward's personal quarters aboard the space station.
"Do you see this katana above my fireplace?" he said. "It belonged to a samurai, centuries ago. Generations of owners have maintained the blade. Oiled and polished it so no rust can grow. It is precious to me. When I see a treasure I admire, I take good care of it. I never let it go."
Pointedly, he released her wrist.
Maria rubbed it and stared at him.
"Are you going to trap me in a cage too?" she said. "Or am I no longer your treasure, and you'll toss me into the fire?"
He stepped closer. She took a step back. He advanced toward her, and Maria kept retreating until her back hit the window. The stars shone behind her. The general loomed before her. With one hand, he gripped her waist. With the other, he stroked her hair.
"No, Maria, I won't hurt you. I'm going to make love to you. Get undressed. Now."
She looked away. "I'm not Maria, I'm Candy, and—"
He pulled her face back toward him. "You are Maria de la Cruz, and you are mine. For too long, you refused me. You give me your mouth and your hand, yet you still keep your legs closed. Do you open them only for the man who impregnated you?"
The words hit Maria like a slap. "I…" Her tongue felt so thick. She could not form words.
"Did you think I don't know, Maria?" he said. "That I didn't notice you turning away wine? That you keep putting a hand on your belly? That your belly is slowly swelling?"
Tears filled her eyes. "Please, sir. Forgive me. I didn't know what to say."
"I don't care," the general said. "If I did, I'd have driven my fist into your belly long ago, aborting the brat inside you. I'm not a monster, despite what you think. I would never demand that you kill a child. But I do demand honesty."
Maria finally dared meet his gaze. "All right, sir. Let's be honest. Both of us. I'm pregnant, and the father is an Earthling soldier. His name is Jon, and he's fighting in the north, an infantryman in the Apollo Brigade. And I love him." A tear rolled down her cheek. "That was me being honest. And now, sir, be honest with me too."
Though she quivered, she would not look away. She held his gaze though every second felt like a battle. She felt like the Santelmos inside the glass case, and his eyes ripped through her with electric rage.
"What do you want to know?" Ward said.
She kept her eyes locked on his. "Did you order the bombing of San Luna, my village? Did you order the massacre at Santa Rosa, where an infantry platoon slaughtered five hundred women and children? Did you order the destruction of a thousand villages like them? Three million Bahayans died in this war. Is their blood on your hands?"
He stared at her in silence for a long moment.
Then he began to laugh.
"Yes, so here we've come to it at last. The question you've been dying to ask me all this time. You've whored yourself for weeks, hoping to hear me confess my crimes. Is that so?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Tell me! You promised me honesty."
"And are you being honest, little rose?" He caressed her cheek, then slowly lowered his fingers. He touched the choker around her neck. "Or are you still hiding something?"
She made to flee.
He pinned her to the window, then ripped the choker off her neck. She gasped in pain.
He held the choker, turning it, examining the light reflecting in the gemstone.
"Such a convincing forgery," Ward said. "A cubic zirconia—cut to perfectly mimic Mother Mary's Tear. You know, Maria, you almost fooled me. You probably would have fooled me had you been more careful. But I have sharp eyes. I confess: At first, I did not notice that the light reflected too dimly in your gemstone. But I did notice you touching it nervously. I did notice you removing the choker when I got too close. As if you were trying to hide something. Your little tells gave you away. You are a poor liar, my dear."
"Please—" she began.
He slapped her. Hard. Her teeth rattled in her jaw.
He dropped the choker onto the deck, then stepped down hard. The zirconia shattered. Ward knelt, and from the broken shards, he fished out the small recording device.
"Ah, just as I thought." Ward turned the recorder over and over. "A simple little device. It's been recording our conversations. Maybe even uploading them to a computer in another location. Pity that it will never record anything too juicy."
He crushed the recorder between his fingers. It reminded Maria of a man crushing a beetle.
She tried to escape.
He grabbed her, pulled her back, and shoved her onto the bed.
He began unbuckling his uniform.
"I'm going to fuck you now," he said. "Hard and fast. I'm going to keep you in my menagerie during the days, then bring you back here every night to fuck you again. You will be the crown jewel of my collection." He pulled off his shirt and began working at his pants. "You know what? I like this. Being able to speak freely. Yes, I did order the bombing of your village. And of a thousand other villages like it. I
ordered millions of Bahayan women and children killed. Do you know why? Because slits are nothing but vermin and whores, and it's my job to kill them and fuck them."
Lying on the bed, Maria stared up at him. "You can't win this war," she said.
Ward placed his gun on the dresser. He shrugged. "You're right. Earth can't win this war. We can bomb you and kill you until the cows come home. And we won't win. This is an unwinnable war. I know it. The president knows it. We've known it for years."
"So why do you keep fighting?" Maria cried.
He laughed. "I enjoy it."
"Two hundred thousand Earthlings died too!" Maria said. "And more die every day! Don't you care about them? Did they die for nothing? For a war you know you can't win?"
"Not for nothing, little rose! Earth's soldiers died for a noble cause." He grinned, still undressing. "To keep the war machine going. Look around you, Maria! Look at this splendor. This space station. This luxury. The thrill of the hunt. The women. The bloodshed. The trillions of dollars that keep flowing. It's all so marvelous! I created this, Maria. And if a hundred thousand Earthlings had to die—so be it! I would let a billion more burn before I give this up—before I give you up."
He was finally naked. He approached the bed, aroused.
Lying before him, Maria gave a crooked smile.
"Thank you. That's all I needed to hear."
He snickered and lay on the bed. "Pity your little bug is smashed."
She rolled away from him. She rose from the bed, and now she was staring down at him.
"You still don't understand." She shook her head sadly.
He stared up at her. He bared his teeth. "It's time for you to shut your mouth, whore, and do your job."
"But you know I'm more than a whore. You've always known. That's what you found so attractive, so dangerously seductive. Oh, I could put on a show for you. Pretend to be a silly little bargirl, just an innocent peasant girl from the provinces, washed into the city, seeking a strong man to protect her. I could play that game, yes. And you would see right through it. Because you see through people. You understand your enemy. That's what you do."
He growled. "Yes, I saw through you at once. Your point?"
Maria laughed. "From the first day, you saw through me, knew I was more than a bargirl. You expected me, this clever girl, to be a spy. So I behaved like a spy. I led you on. I deliberately confirmed all your suspicions. I worked to gain your trust. I asked you questions when I felt I could. And I carried a recording device—which I kept nervously touching, knowing you would notice the tick. You caught me—as I knew you would. You saw through me—as you see through all your enemies. But what you didn't realize… was that I was letting you win. That I let you take my knights, my rooks, even my queen. And you never saw the last piece on the board. A sneaky little pawn behind all your defenses. You never saw my second recording device."
His eyes widened. He leaped from the bed. His fists tightened. He spoke through a clenched jaw.
"What?"
"While you slept one night," Maria said, "I read a book from your shelf. A book by Vegetius. I've seen you read it, and I became curious. Vegetius wrote: 'Those designs are best which the enemy are entirely ignorant of till the moment of execution.'"
"I'm familiar with Vegetius," he said.
Maria touched her neck. "I knew you would catch the fake zirconia. I was careful to keep touching it, drawing your attention to the forgery. But you never bothered to look at my ears."
She brushed back her hair and pulled off her left earing. She showed him the jewel.
He saw it at once. What looked like a dark gemstone was a tiny camera. And a tiny microphone.
Ward reached for it. Maria dropped the jewel. She watched Ward kneel to grab it, to smash it.
Now you kneel before me, she thought.
"It's quite too late," she said. "It already transmitted your words to the planet. My girls Pippi and Charlie are already broadcasting it across Bahay. Soon enough, your confession will reach Earth too. You're done. And so is your war. Checkmate, General Ward."
He roared and lunged at her.
Maria leaped aside.
He slammed into the tall windows, shaking but not cracking them.
They both looked at the dresser. His gun was there.
Maria raced toward it. He grabbed her legs. She pitched forward and hit the deck.
Ward reached for the gun, and she screamed and slammed into him, knocking him aside. The gun fell from the dresser. It landed on the floor, and the general reached for it. Maria kicked, and the gun clattered across the deck and vanished under the bed.
Ward didn't bother chasing it. He shoved Maria down, gripped her throat, and began to squeeze.
"This is a better way to kill you." He licked his lips. "I'm going to enjoy this."
He was still naked. Maria felt him stiffen, felt his arousal press against her thigh.
She raised her leg, slamming her thigh into his crotch.
He screamed and released her throat. Maria scampered toward the fireplace, rose to her feet, and fetched the katana off the mantle.
As the general rose to his feet, Maria drew the blade. It gleamed in the firelight, and she pointed it at her enemy.
Ward stood before her. Naked and scarred. Grinning. Madness shone in his eyes.
"You pathetic slit," he said. "The blade is dull."
"I see how your eyes dart. I see how you're blinking too much." Maria smiled crookedly. "Your little tells gave you away. You're a poor liar, my dear."
Then she screamed, tightened both hands around the hilt, and swung the katana with all her strength.
It carved through Ward from collarbone to sternum.
She tried to pull the blade back, to swing again, but it was embedded into bone. She released the hilt, stumbled back, and stared with wide eyes.
There was so much blood. It poured down his chest. Pooled on the deck.
Ward still stood, the sword stuck in his torso. He looked into her eyes.
"I love you, Maria," he whispered. "You play the game so beautifully. You are the only woman I've ever loved."
He took a step toward her. Another step. He reached out.
And then he crashed down at her feet and breathed no more.
Maria didn't waste a second. She must leave this space station at once.
She ran from the chamber.
Chapter Twenty-Five
A Dark Warning
"Tell me about them. About George and Jon. Tell me everything."
They sat on the hill under the maple trees. It was Kaelyn's favorite place in Lindenville. The leaves rustled, scattering dapples of light over grass and wildflowers. The church rose beside them, bricks mottled with morning. Birds sang, squirrels raced among the branches, and children played nearby, climbing and rolling down the hillside.
It was a beautiful place. The place Kaelyn would often come to write, escaping her father's fists. The church where she had hoped to marry Paul. The bench where she had first kissed Jon. She lived in New York now across the river, but Kaelyn had wanted to come here today. To tug the chain of this anchor that bound her to childhood.
Etty sat beside her, only sixteen and already a veteran, the ghosts of war haunting her eyes. The girl looked at the trees and birds, and a tear streamed down her cheek.
She spoke softly. "My family was murdered when I was younger. A terrorist attack."
Kaelyn held her hand. "I know."
"So they sent me to live in America. In the next town over, in fact. Only a few streets away. I was a lonely foreign girl, so afraid. I could barely speak English. I lived with an old, sick aunt who died shortly after she adopted me. The other kids bullied me. I cried every night. But this place?" Etty gestured around her at the bench, the church, the trees. "I would ride my bike here every day. Just to look at the trees. And sometimes at night to look at the moon. And it soothed me. It saved my life."
Kaelyn smiled. "That's beautiful." She thought for a moment. "But
… the church! Can you…" She glanced at the Star of David that Etty wore on a necklace.
Etty laughed. "You can still admire a church even without praying inside."
"This place means a lot to me too," Kaelyn said. "I wish we had been friends back then. So that you wouldn't feel so alone. We lived only five blocks away! How did we never become friends, Etty?"
Etty shrugged. "We never met before all this. I'm a year younger than you, and I went to a different school."
"You're a year younger and were a soldier," Kaelyn said. "You lied about your age. I know the story. To join the army. You're braver than I am."
"Brave?" Etty scoffed. "I was terrified on Bahay. All the time. I'm still terrified. I didn't enlist because I'm brave. I enlisted because I was alone."
And then Etty spoke about her time in the army. She spoke of George rolling out of bed one Sunday morning, knocking into the tent wall, and bringing the whole tent down over the squad. She spoke of Jon fashioning a makeshift hook and fishing rod, using a piece of shrapnel and a shoestring, and catching a fish for dinner. She spoke of poker nights, and songs they would sing, and jokes they told. She spoke of visiting the bars of Mindao, and how George had been so shy, but after a few beers he was singing karaoke.
She told the funny stories. The anecdotes.
She did not speak of battles. She did not speak of the horrors at Santa Rosa, nor the slaughter on Surigao Hill, nor the bloodbath at Basilica. One day, perhaps, Etty would speak of these horrors. And Kaelyn would listen, because she needed to know. But not today. And maybe Etty would never be ready to share those tales.
An engine rumbled, interrupting Etty's stories.
An armored black car pulled to a stop below the hill. Three men emerged, dressed in black suits, and black sunglasses hid their eyes. They came walking uphill.
"Kaelyn Williams?" one man said, tallest among the three.
Kaelyn and Etty leaped to their feet.
"Who are you?" Kaelyn demanded.
"We just want to talk," the tall man said.
Etty and Kaelyn turned to flee. But they encountered more men in suits. They were climbing the hillsides all around, carrying briefcases.
Earthling's War (Soldiers of Earthrise Book 3) Page 21