I laugh and rumple his head of spikey hair. “I promise I’ll come home again as soon as I can, okay?”
“Okay,” he says, though his expression is anything but agreeable.
When they board the aeropod, I come along to the landing pad to see them off and wave until they disappear over the ridge. Then I make my way to Willoughby’s office, feeling, as always, that I have just let go of something precious.
Caedmon and I arrive at the same time. I smile, but her face remains sober as she pushes open the door. “Willoughby, someone’s been in the lab. When I locked up last night, I left half a can of soda on the counter. This morning it’s empty. I wouldn’t have noticed, except the edge of the counter was sticky. Whoever knocked it over didn’t cover their tracks very well.”
I glance at Ethan, already seated on the sofa. He gives me a nod, same as always.
“It was Major Norvis,” I say. “I saw him sneaking out the door this morning when I got back from my run.”
“You’re certain?” Willoughby asks.
“Yeah. I spoke to him.”
Willoughby sighs. “I was afraid it might come to this. He’s been in my office twice asking questions about this case.”
“Why do you keep him around?” Ethan asks. “He’s a Macron stooge, and you know he has his eye on running this place someday.”
“All the more reason to keep him under my watch. Last week I asked him to undertake a high-priority investigation of the el-Leone terrorist organization, but he hasn’t taken the bait.” Willoughby purses his lips. “I’ll deal with Major Norvis later. Right now I want to catch Jack up and get the two of you back out into the field.”
“Already?” Ethan asks. “Sir, Jack has only just gotten out of bed. I think she should be given more time to recuperate.”
“I intend to give her a few more days. During that time, I’d like Caedmon to subject her to varying levels of radiation and judge the effects.”
Ethan’s on his feet now. “Sir, I must object. What if she succumbs again and we’re unable to pull her out of it?”
But I see the logic of Willoughby’s plan. I can’t forget about the gun I pulled. “No, Ethan. It makes sense. I’m a wildcard. I don’t want you—or anyone—getting hurt because of me.”
“Sir,” he argues, “I strenuously disagree. The risk is too great.”
“You’re overruled, Ethan. We need Jack. Her background, her expertise, her genetics—they’re too important. We would be nowhere without her.”
“Is this case worth her life?” Ethan asks hotly.
Willoughby has the grace to look uncomfortable, but we all know this is bigger than me. I may have started out mercenary, but this case has grown very, very personal. “How many of Capernica’s people will die or be forced into slavery like my grandmother if we can’t solve it?” I ask. “I’m doing this, Ethan.”
His jaw clenches stubbornly.
“I commend you for your attitude, Jack,” Willoughby says. “If we’re in agreement, Ethan, I would like you to begin preparing to round up the Bruelim we’ve flushed out these past weeks. Are they still heading in the same direction as your friend Emerson?”
Ethan glares at Willoughby sullenly. “Yes, sir. Intelligence says there are about three hundred of them now gathered in the southern mountains.”
“You will lead the operation to subdue them.”
“Eliminate them?” Ethan asks.
Willoughby hesitates. “Only if you judge them an immediate threat to national security. The death of so many citizens could be spun to make Axis look very poorly. For now, we would be better served to place them in a detainment facility.”
“And Governor Macron?”
“We will tell Andromeda that we have a lead on the organization responsible for starting the Chemistrad fire. Several images of the chemical dump made it past the holo-net censors last week and caused an uproar in Epson City before they could be removed. She’s quite anxious to put that particular situation to rest.”
Jewel.
Ethan smiles for the first time. “Yes, sir.”
“Very well. We understand each other. You are dismissed.”
In the hallway outside Willoughby’s office, Caedmon says, “I’m available now, Jack, if you want to start that radiation testing.”
“Yes,” I begin when Ethan grabs my arm and drags me toward the nearest exit. “I want a word,” he growls.
“I’ll be there shortly,” I call to Caedmon.
He opens the door and pushes me outside. I round on him. “What is this about, Ethan?”
“You know perfectly well what it’s about. I can’t let you do this.”
I cross my arms. “I don’t see how you can stop me.”
He leans into my face. “You’re taking a huge risk.”
“A calculated risk. For the good of Capernica.”
“Oh, don’t give me all that nobility crap, Jack!” he bursts out. “This isn’t about Capernica. It’s about you risking your life needlessly. There are other ways—safer ways—to study your DNA.”
“Safer ways? Like what?”
“Like—like giving it time. Wait a few days and see if the effect of the enzyme maintains full strength.”
“We don’t have time. What else have you got?”
I watch the frustration build in his face as his thoughts spin in place. “I don’t know, Jack!” he finally shouts. “But this is not the answer!”
“Ethan,” I say, my own impatience growing, “your behavior is completely erratic. You can’t kiss me one minute and then yell at me the next.”
“Well, someone needs to drive some sense into your head,” he snarls.
“You know you need me for this mission. You’re the one who’s not making sense.”
His eyebrows rise in disbelief. “You don’t get it, do you?” He paces back and forth in front of me, angry and belligerent. “You have no idea what it was like when you were ill. I was six hundred miles away, with no idea what was happening to you, trying to run a rescue operation when all I wanted to do was board an aeropod and return to Axis so I could sit next your bed and try to call you back. I would have traded every one of those kidnapped girls for that chance, Jack. Do you hear me?” He stops in front of me, his face fierce to behold. “That’s why I can’t let you do this.”
I am struck silent. Completely blindsided. So that’s what his kiss meant.
How can I respond? I hold Ethan in tremendously high regard. Our partnership has forged a tight friendship, and I can’t deny a certain measure of attraction. Outside of my family, he means more to me than anyone in the world.
Except Will.
Yet this involves an Axis matter. Ethan’s domain. Not Will’s.
“Come with me,” I say when I recover my voice.
He scowls. “Where, to the lab?”
I grab his arm. “Yes. I want you with me. If I develop any pain in my head, I’ll have Caedmon shut it down immediately. And if I show the least sign of fading away, you bring me back.”
“How?”
“How were you going to do it before?”
He touches my face. His expression is so raw, so vulnerable, I think he’s going to kiss me again. “I don’t know.”
“Then you’ll have to make it up as you go. Will you come? Please?” Once I say it, I realize how very much I want him there.
He sighs and his hand drops. “I can’t talk you out of this?”
“No. But I’ll feel a lot better if you’re with me.”
His expression is deadly serious. “The least sign of trouble and you’re done.”
“Agreed.”
“All right.”
I squeeze his arm. “Thank you.”
Nothing will happen with Ethan standing guard. It’s simply an impossibility. Right now I need Ethan’s steadiness. I need his trustworthiness. And selfishly, some part of me also appreciates his affection. For the moment, I relegate Will to Settlement 56.
Caedmon raises her eyebrows when
Ethan enters the lab right behind me. “Come to help?”
He glowers. “To run interference.”
Caedmon makes no comment as Ethan sets up his holoscreen in the corner of the room and begins working with one eye fixed on the two of us.
She turns to me. “This will take some time. The radiation didn’t affect you at all in Epson City. And even at the portal, it didn’t kick in fully until the next day. I suspect it would accelerate a second time around, but we’ll keep you in here all day and overnight, just to be certain.”
I nod my agreement.
“While we wait, I’d like to run your DNA through a holoware analysis. You responded to the radiation with headaches, unlike our prisoners. It suggests to me that your body was trying to fight it off, the way heat is generated against an infection. You may even be inoculated.”
“You think that’s possible?” I perk up and see Ethan listening keenly, as well.
She shrugs. “You’re two generations removed.” She hands me a cotton swab. “Let’s see what we can find out.”
I rub the swab along the inside of my cheek and hand it back.
“All right,” she says. “Let’s get started.”
Time passes slowly. I join Ethan at the table. Willoughby hasn’t given me any new assignments, but I browse through some of the updated case files to familiarize myself with specific developments that took place while I was asleep. I flip through the thousands of Bruelim who’ve been documented during the health initiative and notice the physical traits our two captives share also carry through a large percentage of the others—powerful frame, dark hair and skin, light-colored eyes. Then I touch base with Jewel. I even do some calisthenics while we wait, but mostly I’m just bored.
Ethan asks periodically, “How are you feeling?”
“Perfectly normal.”
“No headaches?”
“Nothing.”
Caedmon brings us lunch and dinner, but eventually Ethan gets called away. I am growing more and more optimistic that I have developed an immunity to the radiation, but I insist on being locked up overnight. Caedmon arranges for me to move into a secure room, away from the prisoners, and sets up the radiation frequency in the new location. A guard rotation is established, and I finally send myself to sleep reading one of the government-issue books on my holoscreen. I wake up once during the night to find Ethan standing in the doorway, but in the morning I can’t remember if it was just a dream.
Caedmon shows me the results of the DNA analysis after breakfast the next morning. “You have some of the same Bruel genetic patterns,” she says, pulling up another color-coded image on her holoband. “Genes the holoware never encountered before I scanned the prisoners. Probably the same ones that allow you to sense portals. But you don’t show any signs of manipulation.”
“That’s a good sign?”
“I think so. It means you got your genetics honestly, anyway.”
“So I’m immune?”
“It’s too soon to say. If you show no adverse effects by tonight, I’d say yes.”
We don’t get a chance to find out. Colonel Padrillo sticks his head in the laboratory door. “Experiment’s over, girls. We’ve got a situation in the mountains.”
Caedmon shuts down the radiation immediately.
“What’s going on?” I ask as we follow him into the hallway.
“Those boys we’ve been tracking? They’re organized and armed. There’s a standoff taking shape near Settlement 18. You and Ethan are being sent in.”
“Has anyone been hurt?” I ask, struggling to match his stride. He’s leading me out the exit nearest the aeropad.
“There have been casualties on both sides. Captain Alston is fully apprised of the situation. He’ll update you on your way to the site.”
The landing pad soon comes into view. Willoughby stands outside the aeropod speaking with Ethan, who is dressed not in Military black and blue but in gray combat gear. When Ethan sees me, he makes one last protest. “Willoughby, this is foolishness. There are too many unknown factors to bring her into a battle situation.”
Willoughby’s answer is kind but firm. “We’re going up against Bruelim, Ethan. We need her on-site.”
Caedmon pipes up, “Jack experienced no radiation sickness. She’s clear.”
“But what if—”
Willoughby presses something into Ethan’s hand. “This will give you the means to incapacitate her if she becomes uncontrollable again.”
Ethan looks down at the small firearm. He thrusts it back at Willoughby, his face enraged. “I won’t kill her, Willoughby.”
“It won’t cause death.”
“I won’t injure her, either. Just leave her here, for God’s sake!”
“Take it, Ethan,” I say, climbing into the aeropod. A heap of gray armor that I haven’t touched since training waits for me inside. I begin strapping it on. “Take it and use it if you have to.”
“That’s an order, captain,” Willoughby adds.
Ethan snatches the weapon and thrusts it into his belt. “Under protest, sir,” he bites out.
“Very well.” Willoughby steps back as the aeropod hums to life. “A full battalion of Military personnel will be waiting for you on your arrival. Get the situation under control. The safety of our citizens is priority, but keep in mind that we must learn all we can. And corpses give far fewer clues than living men.”
Ethan nods and pulls the door closed, and suddenly we are alone. But Willoughby’s words have entered with us, settled between us, reminding us that there’s far more at stake here than my life or one settlement or a few hundred orphaned boys.
Ethan drops into a seat for takeoff. I don the last of my gear and sink beside him. “Thank you.”
He scowls. “For what?”
“For going to the lab with me yesterday. And for standing up to Willoughby like that.”
“A lot of good it did,” he grumbles.
“You can’t begin to see how much it accomplished.” I pat my chest. “In here.”
His mouth turns down wryly. “I hope those warm fuzzies serve you well when the battle starts.”
“Ethan, those emotions serve as a different sort of armor. Entering that lab, squaring off with Willoughby, fixing the porch step for an old lady—all along, you’ve been solidifying my determination to see this through and return with you. That’s the kind of partner you are. The kind of leadership you demonstrate.” I try to bully my sincerity into his head. “Do you understand? I will not leave you again.”
He’s fixed on my face, eyes drilling into mine. “I’ll hold you to that.”
My lip twitches. “Then maybe you should fill me in on what’s happening.”
He relaxes into the confident, capable version of himself I appreciate so much. “The few hundred Bruelim who slipped away after the enzyme injections have been making their way to the southern Appalachians. I think they’re being compelled in the same way you were, but they’re not trained or equipped for what’s being asked of them. Foremost, they’re hungry. So they’ve been breaking and entering all along their route, stealing food and any weapons they can find. Now they’re congregating in a wilderness area outside Settlement 18, and the mountain folk have had enough. They’ve got the Bruelim pinned in a valley.”
“What’s our objective?”
“Defuse the situation and round up as many Bruelim as we can.”
“If they’ve put themselves all in one place, it might be easier than we thought.”
“They’re so tight they’ve made a chemical drop a possibility.”
“Chemical weapons? Ethan, those are illegal.”
“Not this one. It’s a mixture of proteins and enzymes that Caedmon assures me will act as an antidote to the radiation effects.”
“But these are the Bruelim that resisted the injection.”
He shrugs. “I’m giving Caedmon the benefit of the doubt here. If it doesn’t work, we revert to the old-fashioned way.”
My brow furro
ws. The solution is even more untested than I am. But at least the Bruelim have given us reason to go on the offensive without looking like the aggressor.
Our flight takes only twenty-five minutes. We land in a valley checkerboarded with tilled fields and surrounded by the gorgeous autumn garb of the mountains. I follow Ethan while he finds the officers in charge. He soon has the regiment mobilized and loading into armored vehicles for the half-hour ride to the standoff. I leave the organization entirely to him. I am here only because I have Bruel blood, and in the end, that could be as valuable as battle strategy.
Or it could ruin everything.
The huge vehicles rumble to life and the last of the Military personnel are crowding inside when Ethan motions me on board the nearest one. I climb through the hatch and squeeze in to make room for him to follow when I hear my name called in the soft drawl I know so well. “Jack?”
I raise startled eyes that land first on the welcoming smile of Ernie Cant, then shift to the big man sitting next to him, and finally latch onto a pair of brilliant blue eyes. I catch my breath.
“Will.”
TWENTY-FIVE
My heart stops, then pounds on with the force of an armored tank. I want to rush to him. To fling my arms around him like Hoke tackles me. But the vehicle is filled with ten curious faces that watch our reunion curiously—including Ethan’s.
“What are you doing here?” Will asks. He’s even more surprised to see me than I am to see him. Even if he’s received my letters, I’ve shared very few details of what I now do.
“Special assignment.” My eyes scan his face, his body, those gentle hands cradling the assault weapon on his lap. He looks fit and so achingly familiar. I can hardly rip my eyes away long enough to address his companion.
“Hey, Ernie.”
He grins. “What’s up, Jack?”
“You look well.”
“Thanks. You too.”
And then I’m fastened back on Will, drinking him in. Hardly believing he’s here.
Ethan clears his throat beside me.
I jerk myself back into the moment. “Will, Ernie, this is my partner, Captain Ethan Alston. Ethan, I grew up with Will and Ernie in 56.”
Recompense (Recompense, book 1) Page 30