“You see,” Derrick said to Byran, watching the two women talk. “It isn’t as bad as you imagined.”
“No,” Byran agreed, a faint look of regret shadowing his eyes. “Some things will take time, though. I must say, I’ve noticed a change in you since I left,” he added with more animation.
“I’m not sure what you are talking about ...” Derrick hedged.
“That’s because the earl has confessed his sins to me. Or maybe I should say omissions?” Arinna said, taking Derrick’s arm.
“There is that,” Derrick said, giving her a grin.
“You know he was Guard then?” Byran said.
“What?” Arinna retorted before flashing a smile. When the four had stopped laughing, she added, “And a shame too. I need good lieutenants.”
“Needed, you mean,” Isabella corrected.
“Of course.”
“I was only a Sergeant,” Derrick said.
“Captain Vries indicated you would have gone much higher.”
Derrick tingled at the thought though he did his best to rationalize the feeling. It was only conjecture, even if it were a compliment.
“Be careful, Arinna. He may just kiss you if you praise his service,” Byran said.
“I’ll keep myself under control. The evening is going well enough that I’d like to avoid getting decked by you,” Derrick returned lightly though he was serious.
Byran cast Derrick a weighted glance. But before either could say anything, Arinna froze under Derrick’s hand.
“Outside now if you would?” she said to Derrick.
By the time he led her out of the ballroom and into the slightly more private darkness of the garden, Arinna had fished something from a hidden pocket in her gown. The message on its screen lit her face as she read it, the seriousness of it clear in her eyes.
“I need to leave,” she said, meeting Derrick’s eyes.
“I’ll get the carriage,” Derrick said.
She shook her head. “There is no need. Captain Vries is already on his way. I just need to get away from the party.”
“Which means you still need to leave. I’ll get you out the door,” he said offering his arm. “How long do you have?”
“Half an hour at the most,” she replied though she was slow to accept Derrick’s invitation.
“That will do,” he told her. “I’ll see you back at Kesmere. Stay and enjoy the evening,” he said to Byran and Isabella, who had followed them outside.
“You don’t really need to do this,” Arinna said as they walked into the manor together.
“We spent all evening trying to divert rumors, and now you want to disappear and start goodness knows what. You couldn’t face Byran with his wife perhaps?” he replied. “I want to help, and if you are worried I’ll see something I shouldn’t when Captain Vries arrives, you can blindfold me.”
“Hah,” she replied, giving him a startled glance as he stopped her on the ballroom floor.
“We need a reason to be leaving early,” he said, sweeping her into the waltz that the musicians currently played. He held her closer than before. “One that does not involve conspiracies,” he whispered into her ear.
She blushed, which he expected. He swung her breathlessly out of the dance to stand before Duke Waldrope. “I regret to say we must leave. A matter I must attend to has come up,” he said, gaze lost in Arinna’s eyes.
The duke waved them off without question. Arinna remained quiet until they were seated in Derrick’s carriage and had given the driver instructions to head down the road and stop when told.
“I would not have thought that the rumor you just started would be one you’d choose,” she said to him as the carriage left the estate’s drive.
Derrick shrugged. “I’m not married and, as Corianne’s interest attests, it is well known my engagement is due to a political match by our fathers. And I doubted you’d prefer suspicion that there is entirely too much fighting beyond Europe?” he asked. “This time you don’t need to say that I’m right. I know. Anyone who spends a month in your company would notice the absences and communications.”
“Why do you think that I do not spend much time in anyone’s company?”
“Is that why you sent Byran away?” he asked.
“No. Not the only reason at least. Nor because of rumors, even the serious ones.” She looked away, gazing out the window. “Tell the driver to stop here.”
Derrick helped Arinna from the carriage and walked down the dark road with her to the edge of the field. The tall grass waved in the evening breeze, crickets chirping. Distantly, a low whine grew louder. Derrick barely recognized the outline of the shape that landed as belonging to an aircraft. A faint red light illuminated as a hatch opened.
“Thank you. I do owe you. You were right about Isabella and tonight.”
She hesitated, but whatever else she might have said was left behind as she slipped off her shoes and ran barefoot across the grass to the waiting plane.
Derrick waited until the strange whine of the plane’s engines was lost to the sound of wind on high grass. “But you still don’t trust me,” he said to the crickets before turning to walk back to the waiting carriage.
Chapter 21
THE LADY GREY
WALKING INTO A TRAP
Arinna changed into the quicksilver, body hugging armor in the tight confines of her chair in the cockpit.
“I don’t think your treatment of that dress is very gentle,” Jared deadpanned as Arinna cursed the lack of space for pulling on her military pants.
“I don’t plan on wearing it again,” she snapped, settling into her chair with a whoosh of breath. “You had to have the back loaded with soldiers, didn’t you?”
“We are needed for an emergency. I thought taking backup would be prudent. I don’t see what you have against fighting in a dress. You looked great.”
“Thanks. I’ve certainly never known a woman to be any less dangerous in a dress, but I find they hamper movement,” Arinna tossed back, pulling up the messages Gabriella and Farrak had sent. “That was the Derrick Eldridge you remember?” Arinna asked as the images loaded.
“Yes,” Jared replied. “Though you still doubt it.”
“Not you ... and maybe not him. I’m not really sure about that. I do remember when the PM was killed and Eldridge, his father, demanding we find his son when he was missing. But ... I know I don’t trust David Eldridge. I don’t know what to think of his son.”
“Well, as nice as I find Derrick, I’d prefer you not to think about either of them for a bit. Gabriella and Farrak need your attention more.”
“Just remind me that he may have just fed another rumor we’ll need to deal with later ... though one not nearly as dire as most this summer. I can see why MOTHER, Gerschtein in particular, suggested I move here. I’d forgotten what a quagmire civilian life is. She barely needs to start rumors to dishonor me,” Arinna said, voice fading as the first images came up along with the field reports.
The pictures showed what looked like a typical FLF recon base with armored buildings for ammo set near crop fields. But something made her uneasy. She reviewed the series of photos again.
“It’s too clean,” she said. “The roads have grass on them. No dust on the vehicles or tire tracks beyond maybe one or two.”
“Yeah. Don’t worry, they noticed, but not as quickly as you. They ran some heavier scans with everything we could throw at it,” Jared said, sending new files to her vid.
“Shit. Where is this?” Arinna asked as images of labyrinthine corridors, false walls, hidden rooms, and underground connecting tunnels appeared on her monitor.
“Parvatpura,” Jared answered. Arinna glanced at him. “North-eastern India. You don’t like that either?” he asked as she sat back in her chair.
“Not really. The temperatures will make crops there difficult even with a supply of water. If you were the FLF and had rigged a trap this elaborate, would you have it leading to wherever you’d hidden yo
ur main base or off on a goose chase?”
“I’ll tell Kehm to search toward the northwest once we get a few more satellites online. So what do you want to do with the trap?”
“Spring it, of course,” she said with a grin.
They landed well back from the base, assuming the FLF weren’t using any long range sensors to see them coming. She’d never known them to. Dawn was buffing the horizon pink, making Arinna hopeful that any short range cameras wouldn’t pick up their arrival either.
She met with Captain Vries and her two field Lieutenants in the high tech security of a transport. She and Jared both praised them for realizing the base was a trap before entangling themselves. Gabriella paled when she heard they were going to go in anyway, which emphasized her dark hair and eyes.
“But ... they designed it to inflict maximum damage on an invader. It would be a slaughter,” Gabriella protested.
Arinna waited for Farrak. “We have no soldiers in there. We could just blow it,” he offered after a moment.
“And waste any chance of finding intel?” Jared snapped.
“We have the layouts thanks to the scans you ran,” Arinna said, pulling them up on the vid table they stood around. “We are going in, but not through the front door.”
Arinna arranged the initial attack as a feint. FLF soldiers formed well armed, solid walls to push Guard soldiers into the base. It was just what she wanted. She let the tension mount as her soldiers begrudgingly inched toward the waiting trap, all the while Jared snuck in the back.
The Captain didn’t waste any time. In nearly simultaneous attacks, the secret rooms were broken into and cleared. FLF soldiers were taken out at gunpoint. Arinna was pleased with the performance of the Guard even as her finger twitched on the controls of her dactyl. She hated being so close to a fight but sitting in reserve. It really wasn’t any different from her role in England, waiting at Rhiol as she read intelligence reports and watched her soldiers fight over the satellite feeds. But usually when this close, when she could smell the dust and smoke, she was in the mix of it. It bothered her to watch Jared fight, the Guard fight, and to do nothing.
At the same time, she was very pleased not to be needed. It meant things went well.
By mid-afternoon, Captain Vries escorted her around the emptied base. FLF prisoners, many with potential information more lucrative than any mislaid report in the trap, were placed on transports to be taken to bases on the outskirts of Europe for quarantine and then interrogation.
Walking the base with Jared, the hidden spaces gave her a chill. They were set at vantages between rooms and dead end corridors. Well stocked with ammo and rigged with multiple gun ports, to be caught on the wrong side of them would have been the slaughter Gabriella had feared. Alone with Jared in the largest of the rooms, she paced, not seeing the scanty paperwork or the deadly preparation around her.
“Something else is bothering you,” Jared stated, watching her.
“The FLF were cautious in the opening attack. They were herding the soldiers into the two left bunkers without being too aggressive.”
“I will take your word on it. I was otherwise occupied. What of it?”
“Those buildings had smaller and fewer rooms similar to this one, and thicker walls with doors that locked on the outside.”
“Like a prison,” Jared said. “It is a trap in a trap.”
“They didn’t just want to kill Guard soldiers. They were looking to capture reinforcements coming to aid them.”
“They wanted you or I,” he swore. “I don’t like the direction these battles are going.”
“Nor do I,” she said. “They could have been simply looking to capture soldiers. After this many years of fighting, they may be low on troops too. Or know we are. We need better insight into what is going on out here.”
“More satellites will be up in a week. And maybe some of the prisoners will talk this time.”
“And there is someone else I might be able to ask,” she said.
“You know an FLF spy?” Jared asked, amused.
“I hope not, but I know someone who has found a few people spying on us. Someone besides MOTHER.”
“Oh, now I’m curious.”
“Sorry, Captain. You get to head back to Prague and report to MOTHER since I am inconvenienced at the moment, remember?”
“Gerschtein will realize you are playing her eventually. That is the way it is going, isn’t it?”
“Thanks for the confidence,” Arinna said with a snort. “Yes, mostly due to your old friend the Earl of Kesmere. I think rumors about Byran and I are fairly well dealt with as well as any political shenanigans between myself and the two senators.”
“That just leaves the rumor of you and the earl or Derrick and Byran, I believe,” Jared said, baiting her. “What was it you were hinting at when I picked you up from your date?”
“You seem to be having too much fun with this. I’ll sort it out myself,” she tossed back. She hesitated, stopping to stare around the base now full of commotion as the Guard organized prisoners and checked over the area. “With the satellites coming online, we will be able to watch the border better. What do you think of pulling Gabriella and Farrak back to Europe for a bit?”
Jared rocked back on his heels, looking around before he answered. His green eyes were sober when he turned back to her. “I think you are concerned about more than them needing R and R. Even with satellites, we won’t be able to keep watch as well as having eyes in the field.”
“No,” Arinna agreed. “And I was initially worried about the medical tests, but whatever disease we were seeing in the Americas doesn’t seem to be over here. But look how far we’ve pursued the FLF. How much farther can we go before traps like this work? Or worse, don’t matter? We are stretching ourselves too thin.”
“Shit,” Jared said. “I didn’t want to see the war come down to a stalemate. You’re right,” he said as Arinna went to argue. “We should pull back, at least for now. The fighting has been harder of late and also sparser in between. We’ve bought enough space for a buffer. I’ll tell Farrak and Gabriella we need to speak with them.”
Arinna nodded, unsure if her two field commanders would take the news as a reprieve or a failure. She wasn’t sure what she thought of it herself.
After talking to Gabriella and Farrak, Arinna stayed through the next day before leaving Jared to finalize the prisoner transports and deal with MOTHER. The last of the Guard would exit the field by week’s end to return to Europe. It would be the first time since the war was declared over in the EU, and the Guard was split into the Defensive wing and the secret fighting contingent stationed beyond the border, that all soldiers would be on home soil.
By the time Arinna reached Rhiol, it was dusk on the third day since she’d left. The need for information itched at her. Propriety demanded she send a note to Kesmere asking to meet with Derrick and profusely apologizing for her abandonment of him at the ball. But after landing the shadowcraft and pacing the courtyard between house and stable, she decided propriety could be damned.
Derrick had covered her escape at the ball, gambling his standing to hide her activities. She owed him discretion rather than saddling Raven and riding to Kesmere while still wearing her combat armor and sword. But he would understand, and she swore to herself that if he had company other than Byran and Isabella, she would turn around before approaching the door.
Kesmere was dark enough; her first guess was no one was home. But faint lights from the back of the house where the informal dining room lay kept her from leaving. Uninvited and unexpected, Arinna approached the door with a fluttering of nerves that would have been more appropriate to the time when she’d snuck into Kesmere soaking wet and through the kitchen door. Now she knew the earl, and could possibly even call him a friend, as unlikely as that idea was, considering their history and his father.
A maid answered Arinna’s knock, offering to show her to the back parlor. Arinna requested Derrick to see her in the fr
ont salon, which felt tantamount to ordering him in his house. But the bout of nervousness had reminded her that Byran had children, a fact she should have considered before wearing battle armor to a pretend social call.
Derrick entered the room at a fast pace, nearly tripping when he caught sight of her outfit. “Something is wrong?” he asked. Concern marked his eyes more than annoyance at her sudden and unorthodox appearance.
“No ... yes. I,” Arinna stuttered with three false starts. Derrick glanced away, but not before she saw his flash of amusement. “What I mean is that the main problem is dealt with, but there is a pattern to these attacks that worries me. Have you heard from your sources at all?”
The question froze Derrick, tension locking his frame as the reason for her visit hit him. “A drink?” he asked, moving across the room with the tense grace of a fighter. This man she could believe had fought in Voltzcrag and helped win the day.
“No,” she said to his offer, wanting something, but the fact that she still wore battle clothes, not to mention dust but hopefully, not too much blood, kept her from agreeing. She really should have changed first. The evening might have been even slightly agreeable that way.
Derrick nodded at her answer, pouring himself a small glass. “India,” he said, turning back to her.
“Yes.”
“FLF base?”
“Correct, but you could have guessed that,” she told him.
“Are you testing my resources or the leaks in the Guard?” he asked, annoyance creeping into his voice. Which was understandable. It was his house and she had just interrupted his evening to basically interrogate him. Claiming friendship felt a stretch again.
“Both,” she answered, biting her lip to keep from adding anything else.
He studied her. “More than that, I think.”
“Yes,” she admitted. “Are you certain your information comes from leaks in the Guard?”
Derrick paled, leaning against the back of a large chair. “Shit. I don’t know.”
After the War: Military Dystopian Thriller (Friends of my Enemy Book 2) Page 16