Recompense (Recompense, book 1)

by Michelle Isenhoff

  Cautiously, he approaches the nearest one and feels for a pulse. “Stone cold.” Then his face fills with wonder. “But his heart is beating.” He glances at his holoband, holding his finger on the man’s vein. “One beat every five seconds. One breath every twelve.” He travels to the next man and the next, timing pulses and counting breaths. Each time, his face grows more and more astonished. “Jack, I think the Bruelim in the valley were guarding this place. Or perhaps they were on their way here. These guys aren’t dead. They’re hibernating.”

  “But…how?”

  He rises, his face deadly sober. “Why might be a more relevant question. And I’m not sure we want to know the answer.”

  TWENTY-SIX

  Even with the help of the soldiers, it takes a few hours to evacuate the dead and wounded from the field and clear the cave of Bruelim. I mark off the portal with stakes and caution tape and stand guard beside it, making sure no one ignores the barricade. It interferes with the evacuation, sitting so tight against the rock face, and I hear plenty of complaints about the very normal-looking rectangle of ground inside. Each time, I tell them it marks a dangerous sinkhole. My explanation prompts some odd looks, but we don’t lose anyone through the portal.

  Every single Bruel—the dead, the wounded, the apparently recovered, and the hibernating—they’re all taken to a lockdown facility fifty miles away. Ethan and I are among the last to leave Settlement 18. As I pass one of the few remaining AVs on my way to rendezvous with him at our aeropod, strong arms suddenly pull me behind the vehicle, and soft, insistent lips find mine.

  I wrap my arms around Will’s neck. The body armor that separates us makes the embrace feel distant and wrong, but the taste of his lips, the feel of his hands on my face, the smell of his skin, they’re all exactly right. I close my eyes and let him take me far from the battlefield, far from the wonders and horrors I’ve seen this day. I cling to him, unwilling for the kiss to end.

  When our lips part, Will presses his forehead against mine. “I’ve missed you.”

  I tighten my arms around his neck and he lifts me off the ground with the force of his embrace. It’s pure luck, this stolen moment, and we both know it.

  “What are you doing here?” he asks. “How’d you end up in Military?”

  “I’m not. I work for Axis.”

  He shakes his head. “I don’t know the name.”

  I never mentioned it during our discussion the night of graduation. “It’s pretty hush-hush. Intelligence, mostly. But I had to go through basic training. And I passed a Military Five,” I tell him, just in case he never got my letter. Not that it matters anymore, but I want Will to know.

  He grins and kisses me on the nose. “I knew you could do it.”

  “Opal said you graduated with honors. Where are you stationed?”

  “Still in Macron City.”

  It’s a comfort to nail down a location, even though it could change at any moment and I would never know.

  He kisses me again, and I’m transported back to a simpler time, before guns and Military training and a knowledge of the Bruelim. Back to when there was only me and Will against the future. How different everything is now. How different I am.

  I realize that Will doesn’t even know about my genetics. About Ruby or my past or my connection to the men he has just fought. And this is not the time to tell him. Not when we have only minutes. Not when I haven’t even figured out what it means for myself. There will be time to sort through that later. For now, I simply cling to this moment. To what is comfortable and sweet and familiar.

  Footsteps approach behind me, pause, and retreat around the front of the vehicle. We’ve been discovered, but I don’t care. This moment is too precious. Will looks up, but I pull his head down one last time and savor the pressure of his lips. “I love you, Will Ransom,” I whisper as I pull away. Just in case I never get the chance to say it again. “Tell Ernie good-bye for me.”

  He nods, and I leave him there. Looking back is too hard, so I don’t.

  Ethan waits for me at the front of the AV. By the closed look on his face, I can tell he was the one who stumbled onto me and Will. We walk to the aeropod and board in uncomfortable silence. I try not to let the awkwardness steal the lightness from my heart, but the cabin feels much smaller than it did this morning.

  It’s a long ride home.

  ***

  Willoughby is so thrilled with the outcome of the case that he rents the back room of the nicest restaurant in Settlement 9 and invites me, Ethan, Caedmon, Captain Chase, and Colonel Padrillo for a fine dinner. The restaurant’s a pale comparison to the establishments in Epson City, but our room is candlelit, the table’s draped in linen, and the china’s edged with gold. When we sit down, I am completely baffled by the amount of silverware at my place setting. Ethan sees me counting them and rolls his eyes.

  Willoughby pops open a bottle of champagne. “Here’s to the team that halted the disappearances in their tracks and warded off a second Provocation.” He beams. “You are the first in history to frustrate Bruelim aggression, to my knowledge.”

  We all raise our glasses to that.

  Colonel Padrillo presses Ethan for details of yesterday’s operation.

  “It was hardly climactic,” Ethan says. “These weren’t soldiers. They were kids acting on man-made instincts, doing the bidding of those who created them. They were ill-prepared for battle.”

  “The Bruelim are cowbirds, not eagles.” Willoughby gives me a nod. “Jack, I assume you’re familiar with the species?”

  I may not know silver, but I know woodland inhabitants. “Sure. The cowbird is a brood parasite. It doesn’t raise its own young. Instead, it searches out the nest of another species, removes an egg, and replaces it with its own. The young is then raised unknowingly by the foster parents, usually at the expense of their own offspring. Cowbirds are bigger and stronger than most host species, and they hatch first, enabling them to demand the most food, which often results in the death of the siblings.”

  “Which is exactly what the Bruelim have been doing to us,” Willoughby says. “There is no way to tell just how long they’ve been using such a hands-off approach, dropping infants among us for us to raise and then relying on them to deliver up their siblings, but I believe they’ve gotten lax after so many generations of easy prey. They don’t realize that our technology is overtaking their methods.”

  “They’re bound to notice sooner or later,” Captain Chase warns, “when their captives stop pouring in.”

  “In the meantime, there’s that little problem of Major Norvis,” Colonel Padrillo puts in.

  “What about Major Norvis?” Ethan asks.

  “He’s gone. Along with several files from the lab.”

  “Mostly data on the Bruelim,” Caedmon adds.

  Willoughby’s brows meet over his eyes. “I think it’s safe to assume that Governor Macron will soon be putting a lot of pieces together.”

  I feel dread building in my gut. “What does that mean for us?”

  Willoughby shrugs. “It means that I will be forced to confront Andromeda sooner than I thought. For the rest of you, it’s business as usual. Especially for Caedmon. With over three hundred Bruelim now at her disposal, she has a good deal of work ahead of her, particularly in regards to this hibernation phenomenon.”

  “I don’t like it.” Ethan frowns. “It’s almost as if they’ve gone into some kind of survival mode. Like they’re waiting.”

  “For what?” I ask.

  “For whatever the Bruelim are planning next.”

  My alarm deepens.

  “We are not going to wait around for them to make their next move,” Willoughby says. “As Ethan mentioned, the Bruelim were ill-prepared for an offensive. Now is the time to press our advantage. We’re going to take the fight to them.”

  A gleam comes to Ethan’s eye. “We’re going inside the portal?”

  Willoughby lifts his glass one more time and smiles around the table at us. “
We are indeed.”

  ***

  It is dark beneath the trees where I wait for Ethan. And cold. I have my uniform on warm-side-in, the way I wore it the very first time we ran. Overhead, the branches have lost a good portion of their foliage, opening the canopy to a view of the stars. I hear him crunching over fallen leaves as he approaches.

  “How far?” I ask, shivering slightly as he comes into view.

  “Think you can handle eight?”

  “Sure.” It’s been two days since the battle. I’ve moved back into the dormitory. I feel rested. Everything’s back to normal.

  Almost.

  We set out in the light of our holobands, and I can still feel the unsettled quality lingering between us. It’s been following us around since our return and tags along for five miles before I finally have to put a stop to it.

  “Ethan, about the other day…”

  “What about it?”

  He knows full well what I’m driving at. He’d have to be dead to not feel the tension between us, but he’s going to make this hard on me.

  I dive in. “Before the battle, I promised I wouldn’t leave again. I promised I’d come back to you. And I have.”

  He runs a hundred yards before replying. “Jack, I’ve come to realize that you’ve never fully been here to begin with.”

  “That’s not true. It might have been at first, but it’s not anymore. I’ve poured everything into this job.” I let my stride slow, dragging Ethan to a stop beside me. “Ethan, Will is my oldest and dearest friend. I love him. I’ll always love him. Had we stayed in Settlement 56, we would have married.”

  He glances at me. “And now?”

  “And now Will is in Military and I am not. You know the rules.”

  “But you still want him.”

  I chuckle bitterly. “If I could have anything I want, I’d turn back time and skip the Military portion of the Exit Exam. I’d stay in 56 where life was uncomplicated, and I’d be ignorant and innocent and surrounded by family. And yes, I’d marry Will.”

  He turns away, but I pull him back.

  “But that isn’t my life anymore. Everything’s different now. I’m different. I work for Axis. I’ve done things. I know things. You and I, we have a job to do—a big job. For now, that must be my total focus. And there is no one else in the whole world I’d rather be partnered with than you.”

  His gaze is sober. “A few weeks ago, a speech like that would have thrilled me.”

  “I’m sorry it’s not everything you want to hear.”

  His lip quirks. “I’ll take it. For now.”

  He starts jogging again, and I fall in step beside him. This time some of the awkwardness stays in the forest.

  “You know,” he says, “by way of partners, you shaped up pretty well too.”

  I smile. “I believe Willoughby said we’re the best in millennia.”

  “And if Willoughby said it…”

  “Case closed.”

  He chuckles. But when he speaks, there’s fire behind his words. “We can do this, Jack. We can end this once and for all.”

  “We’ve made a good start already. The Provocation’s over.”

  He glances at me, that gleam back in his eye. “And the Recompense has just begun.”

  END OF RECOMPENSE

  Continue reading for a sneak preview of the second book in the Recompense trilogy.

  The Provocation’s over,

  but the Recompense has just begun.

  BETRAYAL

  Michelle Isenhoff

  Now available.

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  If you enjoyed Recompense, you might also like…

  Do not look Watchers in the eye. Don't give them a reason to notice you. That's what my parents told me. But everything's changing...

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  BETRAYAL (book 2)

  ONE

  The air in the gym feels stifling after my cool morning jog. Perspiration drips off my body by the bucketful. I pull my chin over the bar, counting out each repetition in my head. …twelve…thirteen…fourteen…

  I feel strong. It’s been five days since the battle with Emerson and the other Bruelim in the mountain valley, and a full week since I woke up from a reaction to the radiation beaming in through the portal in Settlement 56. Since that time, I’ve rested, gained back the few pounds I’d lost, and focused on returning to full strength.

  …twenty-five…twenty-six…twenty-seven…

  The timer dings. Two reps over the Military minimum.

  I drop to the floor. I’m stronger than I was last spring, when I took the Military test and failed. I was hired in at Axis because of my unique ancestry, but I’ve felt a lot more comfortable since I actually achieved all the Military marks. My success came too late, however, to qualify me as an official Initiate of Military caste, so the gulf between me and my dearest friend Will Ransom still stands. During his twenty-year tour of duty, he’s not allowed the distraction of relationships with anyone outside of his own caste except for family. Since I’m merely a Lower, the absolute bottom tier on the social ladder, I’ve been cut off.

  Then five days ago, Will turned up in my armored vehicle on our way to the battlefield. The precious, stolen moments afterward still put color in my cheeks. I’m hopeful, so crazy hopeful, that we’ll be thrown together again.

  I grab a towel and swab the rivers of sweat from my neck. Actually, I’ve had little time to miss Will since my return. The battle resulted in a prison full of captured Bruelim—including twenty-four who are hibernating. And none of us are sure how Governor Macron will react once she finds out, if she hasn’t already. She’s demanded a meeting first thing Monday morning.

  I wish I had a better read on the governor. I’ve never met her. Only viewed her on camera. At least twice a year, she issues speeches that are mandatory viewing throughout Capernica. All of Settlement 56 packs into the school gymnasium where we can see the village’s only screen. On air, the governor is beautiful and soft-spoken. A calming presence. A benevolent protector. That’s how I viewed her growing up. I didn’t love all her rules, but the Provocation weighed so heavily on the memory of the older generation that I understood the purpose behind them. Now my boss, Willoughby, has hinted at a different side of her, one the public never sees, and I am left to reevaluate my opinion of her.

  According to Willoughby, Governor Macron expressly forbade him from following up on the evidence my grandmother gave forty-seven years ago regarding the existence and plans of the Bruelim, that race of super-beings that broke with the rest of humanity long ago and has plagued us ever since. Despite that order, Willoughby quietly continued the investigation and has been hiding away his findings ever since. The Bruelim became the key focus during our recent kidnapping investigation, and they made up the enemy force we fought against only days ago. Now that Major Norvis has stolen our case files and turned them over to the governor, the secret’s out. Macron will soon know everything.

  I’ve never really understood why she didn’t support the investigation to begin with. Sure, it’s a lot to take in. A secret civilization abducting our women by the thousands to repopulate their own culture. But Willoughby gathered enoug
h evidence to convince me. He thinks the governor turned a blind eye to maintain her new and tenuous hold on the government. At that time, the nation was on the brink of collapse after the chaos of the Provocation. But now she’ll have to listen. Won’t she?

  I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.

  After another fifteen minutes in the gym, I head out to the woods for a cooldown. Sometimes I miss having as many reasons to go outdoors as I did back home in 56. Here at Axis, I spend far too much of my day within walls. Now I lift my face to the breeze and let it snatch away the heat radiating off my body. Leaves drift down like brightly colored confetti and gather on the path to crunch underfoot. Each footfall releases the rich aroma of spent earth and decay. I follow the running trail until the trees thin and the valley opens up below. Then I sprawl in a sunny patch of grass, click on my holoband, and connect with home.

  Hoke’s face fills my screen. I project my four-year-old brother’s beaming smile into the air in front of me.

  “Hi, Jack!”

  “Hey, buddy. Been waiting long?”

  “Just a few minutes.”

  “Is everyone there?”

  “Yeah, they’re here.” He scans the room with the camera and I see my foster mother—I mean my great-aunt—and eight-year-old twins Ollie and Tillman. All of us kids are orphans Opal has adopted, but together we make a true family. When Willoughby discovered the letters we’d been sneaking in and out of Axis, he graciously gave Opal a holoband so we could keep in touch in a more secure manner.

  Hoke’s face comes back on the screen. “They have to wait till I’m done talking to you. Opal said.”