Shadow of the Coalition

by Jamie A. Waters

  “Not to my knowledge. I have an appointment at the towers later today so I’m getting ready to head there now. Have you spoken with the other traders?”

  “Not yet. Director Borshin indicated you were the only one to file a report.”

  Carl frowned and considered the possibilities. He shared the area to the east of the towers with Rand. It was possible that whoever was piloting the aircraft just hadn’t moved into the other districts yet. “I’ll have Cruncher send you a copy of our surveillance video from yesterday. Let me know if you find out anything else.”

  “Will do. Take care and give my best to Kayla.”

  Carl said his goodbyes and terminated the transmission. Kayla placed her hand on his arm, drawing his attention. “You’re worried, aren’t you?”

  “A bit. I have a bad feeling about this. As far as I know, there aren’t many other facilities with surveillance aircraft. If someone else is mapping OmniLab territory, this could be a problem.”

  “Maybe we should put off returning to OmniLab until we learn more,” she suggested. “I could ask Alec to hold off on the audit thing for a while.”

  Carl didn’t answer right away. Part of him was tempted to stay and keep an eye on the situation, but if there was a potential danger, he wanted Kayla in the towers where she’d be safe. After her confession last night, he knew there was no way she’d willingly go to the towers without him. He also needed to get to the bottom of this audit request.

  Leaning forward, Carl brushed a kiss across her forehead. Kayla had enough on her plate without needing to concern herself with everything else. “It’ll be fine. If there are any more sightings, we can come back. Cruncher will contact us if anything comes up.”

  “I guess you’re right.” Kayla frowned. It was clear she still wasn’t thrilled with returning to the towers. Her reluctance filled him with a small measure of satisfaction. Aside from OmniLab’s frequent nosing in their affairs, the past several weeks with her had been wonderful. He didn’t care much for the thought of sharing her again with Alec—even temporarily.

  Alec could be conniving when it suited him, and he’d obviously set his sights on Kayla as the prize. With the way they’d left things in the towers, Carl had no illusions that Alec would do whatever was necessary to work his way into her life. He’d been making Carl’s work life a living hell for the past month, piling on additional work in the form of tweaking their existing safety procedures, monitoring their comms, insisting upon daily schedule logs, and now this audit had landed on his desk. It didn’t matter that his camp was the smallest of the trading camps and they were short-staffed. Alec kept reminding him he could easily be replaced and recalled to the towers if he didn’t toe the line.

  So far, he’d managed to handle things, but it didn’t look like they’d let up anytime soon. He’d played off some of his concerns to Kayla about the audit, but he was worried. There wasn’t anything for OmniLab to find, but he wasn’t sure how far Alec would go in his pursuit. The sooner they resolved the situation with that damned bond, the better. If the only way to do that was to have Kayla return to the towers, Carl was determined to be right there with her. He just hoped this decision wouldn’t backfire on him.

  Forcing a smile he didn’t quite feel, he tried to bury his concerns. “Why don’t you get ready to go? I’ll let Cruncher know what’s going on and ask him to send the images to Rand.”

  Kayla hesitated for a moment, searching his expression. He kept his face blank and remained silent, hoping she wouldn’t press the issue. After a long moment, she shrugged and climbed out of bed. Tossing a sultry look over her shoulder, she blew him a kiss before stepping inside the bathroom.

  Carl watched her go, resisting the temptation to join her. With a sigh, he shook his head and began to dress. Unlike most other relationships, this one continued to confound him. Of course Kayla wouldn’t pry. It seemed to be an unspoken rule with most ruin rats. Sometimes it was amazing he’d made as much progress with her as he had. Kayla had no problem with the physical aspects of their relationship, but any hint of discussing emotions had her looking for the nearest exit.

  Ruin rats were transient in nature. Even though she might have strong feelings for him, she shied away from putting them into words. One of these days, he’d manage to bridge all of her walls. In the meantime, Carl reminded himself to be patient. So far, she hadn’t run. As long as he let her set the pace, she continued to let him deeper into her world.

  With one last longing glance toward the shower area, he headed out of the room.

  Cruncher, Jinx, Zane, and Lisia were in the common room having breakfast and greeted him when he entered. Jinx was a tall, willowy, redheaded woman who had been working as a scavenger for him for the past three years. He’d come to depend on her quick mind, cool temper, and knack for helping to diffuse tense situations in the camp.

  Zane was a blond man with fair skin and an average build. Carl had recruited him from the same ruin rat camp where he’d met Jinx three years earlier. Zane was an excellent scavenger with an almost uncanny knack for working locks and getting into tight spaces. He’d immediately impressed Carl. Zane and Kayla frequently challenged one another. Their playful competitiveness only helped to enhance their already remarkable skills.

  Lisia, on the other hand, was a problem that needed to be remedied soon. Carl had been briefly involved with her before meeting Kayla. Unfortunately, Lisia harbored some rather intense resentment toward Kayla and Carl’s blossoming relationship. Because of the tension, he’d been giving serious weight to Jinx’s suggestion about transferring both Lisia and her brother, Elyot, to Rand’s camp. The loss of Elyot would be a hardship, but it might be worth it to have less discord within the compound. Once the audit was complete, he’d speak to Rand about the possibility and begin looking for crew replacements. Either that, or they might be able to work out a personnel trade.

  Carl walked over to the table. “Sorry to interrupt your breakfast, but I just heard from Rand.”

  Cruncher swallowed a bite of his food. “Something up, Boss?”

  “Possibly,” Carl said and told them about the call.

  Zane shook his head. “I was with Xantham last night when he was monitoring the comms and radar. There weren’t any other sightings in our district.”

  Carl didn’t bother to hide his relief at the news. “Good. I was debating whether I should cancel my trip to OmniLab. Kayla agreed to go with me. Hopefully, we’ll get some answers when we get there.”

  Cruncher snorted. “I bet she’s thrilled about that.”

  “Not even close,” Carl replied.

  “Veridian told me about the earthquake yesterday,” Jinx said with a frown. “We still don’t know what caused it, do we?”

  Carl hesitated, wondering if Alec was right and Kayla had been responsible for it. There was no need to worry his crew about it though. “It’s on the list of things to find out. At the moment, I’m more concerned about this aircraft. Cruncher, Xantham managed to capture some images from the surveillance feed yesterday. I need you to send them to Rand when you’re done eating. If there’s any change or any other sightings, let me know and we’ll come back immediately.”

  Lisia had been quiet up until this point. She stood and swept her curly blond hair back. “That’s all right, Carl. I need to do some work in the communications room anyway. I can take care of it for you.”

  Carl raised an eyebrow, surprised at the unsolicited offer. Lisia wasn’t known for being particularly helpful, especially not lately. Cruncher seemed somewhat caught off guard, too, but shrugged.

  “Makes no difference to me,” Cruncher replied and took another bite of his food. When Carl nodded in agreement, Lisia pasted on a polite smile. She dumped her tray into the recycler and headed out of the room.

  “That was weird,” Zane muttered and looked around the table. “Anyone else think that was weird?”

  “Leave it alone, Zane,” Jinx admonished with a wave of her fork. “I think it’s great she’s
offering to help out. Maybe she’s turning over a new leaf. Besides, getting to know some other trader crews would be good for her.”

  Carl pinched the bridge of his nose and didn’t comment. This new and improved version of Lisia wasn’t exactly trustworthy. Unless something dramatic had shifted in the past day, something was going on with her. He’d reminded Lisia a month ago that her and Elyot’s contracts were up for renewal, hoping the threat of not renewing with them would change her behavior. Unfortunately, it seemed to have made things worse. Lisia’s productivity, while never stellar, had diminished considerably until most of the camp was feeling the strain from picking up her deadweight.

  Her changing behavior might be unexpected, but Carl wasn’t about to get into this discussion now. He’d deal with Lisia and her mood swings after returning from the towers.

  After Kayla finished in Carl’s room, she returned to her private quarters to pack. She might spend most nights in his bed, but there was something to be said about enjoying her own private space too. Such a thing had been outside of her experience until she moved to the trader camp. It was still a novelty.

  Carl had offered to move her belongings into his room, but she’d managed to dodge the issue so far, unsure she was ready for something so… permanent. As a general rule, ruin rats didn’t do permanent. Losing someone you cared about was hard enough, but when you dropped your defenses and had that expectation they would be there, your entire world could be upended once they were gone. She squeezed her eyes shut, remembering when Pretz had died. She’d been careless afterward, making so many mistakes. In their line of work, mistakes were frequently deadly.

  If she’d had that much difficulty coping with Pretz’s death, losing Carl would be a thousand times worse. It was hard enough keeping a modicum of distance between her and Carl while living here in his camp, but she had the feeling it would evaporate entirely once she took that next step and moved into his room.

  With a sigh, Kayla finished packing her bag and left it on the bed before heading toward the common room. Jinx and Zane were still finishing up breakfast when she entered.

  “Morning, Kayla,” Zane greeted her. “We heard you and Carl are headed back to the towers.”

  “Looks that way,” she admitted. Reaching over his shoulder, she grabbed a fruit stick off his tray and winked. He narrowed his eyes but allowed the theft and then chuckled.

  Jinx pushed her tray aside and stood. “Could I talk to you, Kayla? I know you guys are trying to hurry and get out of here, but it’ll just take a minute.”

  Kayla cocked her head and took a bite of the pilfered food. Jinx shifted from foot to foot, not meeting her gaze. The tall redhead was normally confident and self-assured, but something had Jinx nervous. Curious about the cause, Kayla nodded in agreement and followed Jinx to the workroom in the back of the camp.

  The large room was originally designed as a practice room, but with all the new equipment Alec kept sending, it was now quickly becoming more of a secondary storage room. Kayla grumbled under her breath about the excess waste and carefully stepped around some boxes piled by the door. Maybe they could donate some of these things to her former ruin rat camp. They could use the extra supplies. Hell, Leo would probably dance around camp for a week when he got a look at some of these gizmos.

  Jinx closed the door behind them and anxiously twirled a red curl around her finger. “Sorry, I just didn’t want anyone else overhearing yet.”

  Kayla looked at the young woman in concern. “What’s wrong?”

  “I didn’t mean to alarm you,” Jinx said quickly, almost stumbling over her words. She clasped her hands together as though trying to keep from fidgeting. “It’s nothing bad. At least, I hope it’s not bad. I just wanted to talk to you about Veridian.”

  “V?” Kayla asked in surprise, growing more concerned. “What about him? What’s going on?”

  “This is sort of awkward. I know you’re protective of him. I mean, you guys are really close. I just thought you should know that we… um…” Her voice trailed off as her face flushed to match the red in her hair.

  Kayla’s eyes widened in astonishment as realization dawned. “Holy shit! You and V?”

  Jinx nodded sheepishly. “Yeah. I’m really into him. He’s an amazing guy. We’ve been spending a lot of time together lately. He was going to tell you himself, but he’s on shift later so he’s still sleeping. I know you and Carl are heading to the towers in a little while. I didn’t want you to find out from someone else. Besides, I figured if you were going to kill me, it would be better to tell you now in case I needed time to run.”

  Kayla stared at her blankly for a moment and burst into laughter. Jinx still looked unsure. Both amused at Jinx’s reaction and thrilled Veridian had finally made a move, Kayla couldn’t stop the huge grin from spreading across her face.

  Jinx bit her lip. “Okay, laughing and smiling is good. Right? You’re okay with it?” She looked hopeful at the thought. “I wasn’t sure how you’d react. I know you two are close, and I didn’t want things to be weird.”

  Kayla shook her head, still amused over Jinx’s apprehension. “No, it’s not weird. I’m glad for both of you. You guys deserve to be happy. Just don’t break his heart or I’ll have to hurt you. That would really suck since I like you.”

  Jinx let out a long breath and slumped against the wall. “I don’t plan on it. Man, I feel like I just dodged a minefield. I didn’t want to cause more problems in the camp. I know things are still tense with Lisia.”

  The reference to that particular Pandora’s box caused Kayla’s smile to slip. “Right. Well, I think it’s great about you and V. I’m still kinda shocked though. He’s had a thing for you since he first met you, I just didn’t know he acted on it yet.”

  Jinx’s eyes lit up and she smiled, making the normally pretty girl positively radiant. “Yeah. I had to drop some pretty big hints to get him to take that step. He was worried about making me uncomfortable or moving too quickly. It sounds silly saying it, but he’s a complete gentleman. It’s a big change from most of the other guys I’ve known.”

  “Yeah, he’s definitely one of a kind,” Kayla agreed. Veridian was usually reserved around women and tended to be extremely protective of them. As far as she knew, he’d never had any sort of romantic relationship. He was the stereotypical nice guy, and most women ended up thinking of him as a brother or good friend. Kayla had known about his infatuation with Jinx and was thrilled his feelings were reciprocated.

  “Well, I just wanted to give you a heads-up. I know you’ve got stuff to do before you head out, so I’ll let you go take care of it.”

  Kayla smiled at Jinx. “When I get back, I want to hear all the details. Knowing V, he won’t say a word, so you’re going to have to spill your guts. Take care of him while I’m gone.”

  Jinx laughed. “It’s a deal.”

  With a grin, Kayla turned and headed down the hall wondering how she’d completely missed that development. She was still shaking her head when she entered the tech room. Cruncher was hunched over one of the terminals working on the images from the cavern.

  Kayla leaned across the desk to get his attention. “Heya, Cruncher. Think I can snag a copy of those images? Carl’s dragging me to the towers for a couple days and I want to take the files with me.”

  “Sure thing,” Cruncher replied and pulled up another screen. “Maybe with you two lovebirds gone, some of us can get some actual work done.” She made a move to swat him, but he held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I’m sending it to your commlink unit now.”

  He entered a few commands, and Kayla’s commlink beeped a moment later, acknowledging receipt of the files. She thanked him, and he added, “I’m going to start rendering the images in three-dimensions. I’ll send them to you at OmniLab when they’re ready. When Veridian drags his ass outta bed after playing with Jinx all night, I’m going to have him work on aligning the images with our topographic maps. We might be able to determine the path of the
river based on that.”

  Kayla’s eyes widened. “Shit, you knew about Jinx and V too?”

  Cruncher laughed. “They’ve been making eyes at each other for the past couple of weeks. When they disappeared together last night, we all had a general idea what was going on. It’s a genuine lovefest in here. I’m going to have to go find myself a woman.”

  Kayla blew out a long, drawn-out breath. “I can’t believe I’ve been so out of the loop.”

  He grinned and patted her shoulder. “Judging by the amount of time you’ve been spending with the boss and dodging Alec’s calls, I’d say you’ve got more than enough loops of your own.”

  He might have a point, but she wasn’t going to admit it. “I was doing pretty well with dodging Alec until yesterday.”

  “It was only a matter of time. We all knew this would happen, so enjoy the sights and the food and then get your ruin rat ass back here to work. We’re going to need you for that cavern.”

  Kayla smiled at Cruncher’s words. Even with all the teasing about her birthright and ties to the tower, he hadn’t treated her any differently. Although regarded as a derogatory slur by some, she was proud of her ruin rat ways and still considered herself to be one. She felt a pang of longing and realized she missed Leo and her former camp. In some ways, life was much simpler there when it was all about survival.

  Making a mental note to try to visit her old camp with Veridian, Kayla put the thought aside to focus on more urgent matters. “Did Carl forward you a copy of the aircraft image Rand sent over this morning?”

  Cruncher raised his eyebrows at the question. “You didn’t see it?”

  She pulled up a chair in front of another terminal and sat. “Not yet. I want to look at Rand’s images and the ones Xantham extracted. I’d like to see if they’re the same design.”

  “No problem.” Cruncher gestured to her terminal. “You can view them both on Lisia’s machine. She was looking at them a few minutes ago.”