“Nope. No scars.” He jerked my shirt down and rose from the bed.
I dug my heels into the mattress, recoiling under the whip of rejection. I wasn’t going to do that again. Ever. Not that I had intended it to be a seductive move. “So there’s no proof that I bled on the carpet?”
“Exactly.” Tobias strode to the dresser and stared at this open duffle bag. “You’re staying put.”
“And what are you going to do?”
He carefully tucked his socks, tee-shirts and tidy-whities into the top drawer of the dresser. “I need to check out a few things.”
I rolled onto my side and pushed with my hands until I sat up. “Without me?” I winced at the shrill note of betrayal in my voice. “I thought we were a team. I thought I was supposed to help you find the APres Guarda with my vast knowledge of Earthbound human habits.”
“And you will.” He shut the drawer and pressed on the edge of the bag. “When the time is right.”
“No, I won’t.” I knew that tone. It was engraved on my heart. My parents had used it every time they hied off to participate in a protest that landed them in jail. And me in CPS custody. “You’re leaving me behind to keep me safe, protected. I won’t have it. I won’t.”
I banged the Smartphone on my knee trying to break its hold on my hands.
“This is my fight too. This is my world, my home. My family and friends are here. My life is here.” I wiped the hot tears on my sleeves. My throat tightened until each word felt like a stone in my throat. “I have a right to defend my planet. More than any of you, I have that right!”
Tobias whirled around to face me. “And die too. Again? How many times can you die? How many pieces can Ulla carve you into before the CeeBees can’t put you back together? Can’t bring you back?”
I inhaled the pain of his words, tasted the bitterness and fear—his and mine twined so tightly they were inseparable.
“It’s my life.” I raised my chin and stared at his blurry, pale face. “If I can’t spend it protecting those I love, then what’s the point?”
Three strides carried him to my side then he wrapped his hands around my shoulders and lifted me onto my knees. “It’s not just your life, obecht. It’s mine and Layla’s, Kuma’s and Minor’s. I won’t have them killed because of a gung-ho rookie.”
I opened my mouth to argue but he placed his finger across it.
“And it’s not just them. It’s the dozens of operatives stationed in this state, the thousands positioned in this country, tens of thousands on this continent and the millions stationed on distant outposts in the Milky Way. All their names were encoded in your DNA when you joined the UED.”
“I would never give anyone up.” I shook my head. How could he think such a thing? Didn’t he know me at all? “Never.”
“They can take it from your corpse, because your CeeBees will keep it around forever.” He rested his forehead against mine. “It’s happened before. A century of bloody purges, a setback that took the UED a millennia to recover from.”
I breathed in the warm, citrus scent of soap from his skin. “I can wipe the data from the CeeBees if I’m caught.”
I knew I could. I don’t know how I knew, but I did.
“How?” Tobias leaned back to look into my eyes.
“The CeeBees will use the salts in this body to create an electrical current.” The words came out of my mouth without being filtered through my brain. The CeeBee’s had taken control of me. Who cared why as long as they went along with my plan? All that mattered was that I remain part of the team to do my part. “The EMP will obliterate all trace of information and potentially overload any nearby electrical equipment.”
His mouth thinned. “And what happens to you?”
I rested the back of my hand against his smooth-shaven cheek. “If I’m caught, I’m dead anyway. I don’t want to suffer.” I didn’t want to die either, but if that was what it took… “At least this way, it will be quick and maybe I can do a little damage to boot.”
He squeezed his eyes closed for a moment then jerked away from me. He raked the damp towel off the floor before storming to the dresser. “I won’t add your name to my memorial armlet.”
He would too. I sniffed and dried my tears. “Douche.”
His lips quirked and he chucked the towel into the mesh hamper set-up in the corner. “I really need to look up that word.”
“You do that and I bet you find a picture of yourself next to the definition.” I crept inchworm-style to the head of the bed. “What can I do in the meantime?”
“Finish syncing with the datapad and eat something.” He completed folding the duffle to briefcase size and tucked it under his arm. “I’ll be back before Layla releases you for active duty.”
Rest and eat. I was beginning to feel like a queen bee in her hive. I piled the pillows against the headboard and plumped them up before settling against them. “Aye, aye, Captain.”
“It’s Colonel.” Once across the room, he paused by my bed. “And try to stay out of trouble.”
I shook my head. “No can do. Trouble and I are old friends.”
Rolling his eyes, he strode out the door. “Then at least don’t trash my room.”
His room? Aw snap. I’d invaded his space. Crossing my legs at the ankles, I smiled. Turn about was fair play. A smirking Cary Grant seemed to agree with me.
The Smartphone chirped and dropped from my hands.
What the heck? I stared at the screen. Four icons. I recognized the muffin for communications, the King of Spades card for my games, the Knight on his horse had my CeeBee disguises but the fourth one was new. A serpent crawled through an apple and flashed his fangs at me.
Okay. I dried my sweaty palms on the blanket then tapped the snake’s nose.
The icon enlarged until its mouth swallowed the screen in darkness. I shivered as the fangs slowly receded. God, I hope I didn’t just infect the system again. A green stylized image of the Earth flashed on the screen. Underneath a solid blue line, hieroglyphs, Chinese characters and Arabic letters appeared.
Sweat broke out across my upper lip.
Son of a monkey’s butt! This was the information from Ulla’s dead husband—the stuff that had infected the computers and caused us to bug out.
“No. No. No!” I smacked the screen trying to make it go away. “You can’t be here.”
The graphic of Earth faded to blue screen.
My shoulders sagged in relief. “Oh thank you Jesus.”
White letters scrolled across the screen. All data is certified to be 100% virus free.
I blinked. No. Impossible. “Who certified it as virus free?”
CeeBees
Oh snap. I dropped the Smartphone. The CeeBees were in contact with me. “Why are you talking to me? You’re not supposed to talk to me. Doesn’t that violate your programming?”
Our assistance falls within study parameters.
“What study?” I poked the cell but the screen didn’t change. Must be nice to answer when you wanted. I didn’t trust the little Spam dots. Not one bit. But I needed the information.
To help Colonel Tobias Werner uncover the traitor.
My fingers skimmed the cold plastic casing. Ulla’s husband had sent the data containing the traitor’s name?
Traitors. The list is extensive. Members are pervasive in both UED and Coalition Spec Forces.
I rubbed my chin. Traitors, more than one. Everywhere. I glanced at the open bedroom door. Even here? Shadows moved in the hall and I scooped up the cell and flattened it against my pounding chest.
No one somersaulted through the open door, gun in hand to demand the Smartphone. Instead, I heard a baritone mumble then Layla’s chuckle. I shook off the feeling of being an outsider. Nothing unusual there.
Sighing, I glanced down at the screen.
The information has been isolated from Spec Forces computers.
Right. No one knew I had it but me. I cracked my knuckles. “Show me the information.”
>
The green Earth graphic materialized on the screen. One-by-one alien symbols popped up underneath it. “Um, I can’t read that.”
The information is encrypted.
Unbelievable. I just bet the little blue pains in my behind were forbidden to decipher it too. “Can you decipher it?”
The encryption is designed to be read only by MaryJane Radiance Hemplewhite.
My palms itched. Since Ulla’s husband didn’t know me from a pig in a blanket that meant the CeeBees were testing me and my intelligence. I sucked on my bottom lip. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about my intelligence was now being measured against some diabolical yardstick. God only knew what would happen if I failed.
Study terminated came to mind.
I scrolled through the solid mass of characters. Think, Rae, think.
A commercial with beautiful horny women breathed heavily through the television.
Yeah, didn’t need that in my head. “Turn off the TV.”
Static electricity crackled as the set faded to black.
I punched the pillows behind my back and wiggled into place. Okay. If this was a test designed specifically for me then it had to be in English. I only knew English. Any other language would be like trying to teach a chimpanzee how to give a thumbs-up. Useless and impossible. Something told me the CeeBees regarded me as level pegging with the chimp on the intelligence scale. I stared at the alien characters. Based on my assumptions, those symbols were meant to trip me up.
I eyed the oval-shape with a tail. There were an awful lot of those sperm-like symbols and no spaces. There had to be spaces. Humans needed the break to know where one word began and another ended. “Exchange a blank space for every sperm on the page.”
The symbols popped like soap bubbles. Victory trilled through me. The remaining characters were in paragraphs, sentences and salutation. The first page was a letter or memo. “Ha!”
Maybe a chimp could be taught to hitchhike. Now I needed to look for the most likely symbol for ‘e’. I skimmed the page for the most prevalent character.
“Rae?”
I slammed the Smartphone face down on the bed and tried not to startle myself onto the floor.
Technician Minor leaned inside my doorway. His lean features glowed green in the light of the electronic tablet he held. “Layla would like to see you once you’re finished syncing with the CeeBees.”
Syncing with the CeeBees sounded like a Hollywood musical. I cleared the fright from my throat and forced a smile. “You bet. I’ll be right there.”
Minor smoothed the wispy hairs of his moustache. His forehead rippled with thought. “You look guilty. Have you been doing something you shouldn’t?”
My cheeks heated. I was so busted. “I was playing a game.”
Minor glanced over his shoulder before leaning a little further into the room. “Try Lynchpin. It’s my favorite.” Straightening, he cleared his throat and smoothed is uniform shirt. When he spoke again, his voice was louder. “When you’re done visit Layla.”
“Sure thing.”
With a wink, he disappeared back into the hallway.
Listening to his footsteps recede, I stared at the empty doorway. Should I finish the cryptogram now or wait until later? I turned the Smartphone over and glanced at the screen. The letter ‘e’ replaced the twisted star symbol I’d seen earlier.
I really needed to get this decrypted but if I waited someone could come looking for me.
And one of them could be the mole.
Sucking on my bottom lip, I felt my muscles twitch from the mental tug-of-war. Go or stay. The CeeBees hadn’t exactly needed me to work things out. Maybe I could let it work while I visited Layla.
A female murmur drifted down the hallway, a male’s baritone quickly followed then hard soles tapped on the linoleum floor.
Right. Out of options. “Okay CeeBees, listen up. I want you to replace the most prevalent symbols with the letters h-a-o-i-n-s-r-d-l-u-c-m-f-then g in that order of frequency.”
“Rae?” Layla’s soft voice invaded my room.
“And hide the files as you work, only appear at my command.” More English letters supplanted the symbols. The footsteps grew louder and faster, echoing the rampage of my heartbeat. “Now would be a good time.”
The screen blanked and my shoulders slumped in relief. Oh thank God.
Layla stomped around the corner. Her hands bulged against the pockets of her pink lab coat. “Didn’t you get my message?”
“Yes. Yes.” My hands shook as I slipped the Smartphone into my breast pocket. “Minor told me a few minutes ago.”
Layla’s gaze sharpened on the cell. “Did you receive a message?”
“Um, no.” Liar. I slapped my conscience into silence. I needed to be sure who to trust before I spilled my guts. I blinked before casting my eyes onto the blanket. Slowly, I eased my legs to the side of the bed and scooted off.
“Then what were you doing?”
If I had to lie, I needed to be convincing. For all I knew my life depended on it. I inhaled a breath for courage and stared into Layla’s eyes. Fortunately, I’d had a bit of practice in deception. “I’d almost fallen the last time I tried to get up.” Which was true. “So I thought I’d give it a minute to see if I regained a bit of my strength before trying again.”
Which was a bald faced lie. I felt stronger than I could remember. Not that I could tell her that. I forced my gaze not to waver so I wouldn’t betray my cover story.
Layla muttered under her breath and scratched her head. “Why didn’t you tell Minor when he came to talk to you?”
Why? Geez, what was this the Spanish Inquisition? Setting both feet on the floor, I made a great show of boosting myself up with my arms.
Layla tapped her foot on the floor.
Right, the good doctor wanted an answer. “Pride, I guess.”
And fear. I wanted to trust her, Minor and Kuma. I wanted to trust them all. But too much was at stake and I had the most to lose.
Shaking her head, Layla strode forward, wrapped her arm around my waist and lifted me all the way to my feet. “That’s foolish. You’ve been through a lot. No one expects you to recover from fifteen minutes of hibernation in two hours.”
I leaned against her, allowing her to carry some of my weight as we walked to the door. Guilt wormed under my skin. I ignored it and stuck with my story, skirting the lies for truth. “You all have important jobs to do. I should be able to walk to your lab without taking up your precious time.”
Despite her age, solid muscle pushed back against me. “Rae, your job is just as important as ours. You know where all the protected aliens on the planet are.”
“That’s me—a walking, talking alien Who’s Who on Planet Earth.” While we walked down the hallway, cold from the linoleum floor leached through my socks and seeped into my bones.
Layla squeezed my waist while guiding me into the laboratory. “The APres Guarda would do practically anything to get their hands on all that information.”
Exactly. And I would die to keep it out of their greedy mitts. I shuffled to the bed in the center of the rectangular room. “Besides feeding me are you going to do any other tests?”
“Just a few.” The doctor set her hand on my back as I climbed onto the mattress. “The colonel wanted to make certain you are healthy enough to be released for today’s mission.”
Warmth spiraled through me. Tobias had kept his word and I hoped to have something of value before he returned. I wiggled my chilled toes under the blanket. “They won’t take you away from doing your inventory, will they?”
I nodded to the stacks of silver suitcases standing near the bank of cabinets lining the long wall opposite the door.
Layla strode over to the sole cart in the room and grabbed the yellow Funyuns bag. “Not a bit.”
“It doesn’t involve needles, does it?” When I laid down, a lumpy spring poked my spine. I wiggled to the side and hit another. Great. I have to break in a new bed. “I�
�m not fond of shots.”
“No needles. I promise. The sensors are in the bed and will relay your results to my e-tablet to compare against your earlier readings.” Smiling, she handed me the bag. “I’m sure you just need more salts and water.”
Salt. Yum. Licking my lips, I took the bag and dipped my hand inside. “Can I have soda instead of water?”
I shuddered at the gallons that I’d been forced to drink earlier.
Layla opened a cabinet and removed a bottle of spring water. “Water is best until I can tell which salts your body is low on.”
“I suppose.” My fingers brushed the bottom of the bag until they hooked a partial ring. Pulling it out, I quickly stuck it into my mouth then licked the crumbs off my skin.
“You don’t like water?” The doctor twisted the lid, breaking the seal before handing me the bottle.
“When I was sick, my mom used to make me drink water until I threw up.” I quickly took a sip while I still had the taste of toasted onions in my mouth.
Layla wrinkled her nose. “Yes, I could see where the association would become rather unpleasant.” She reached into the bag, frowned then took it from me. A blush stole up her neck to suffuse her face. “I seem to have eaten them all.”
“Maybe you could call Tobias and have him pick up a few more while he’s out.”
“The colonel went out?” Foil crinkled when the doctor balled up the bag.
“Yes, to check on some leads.” I wiped the droplets from my lips. Surely, I hadn’t betrayed Tobias by telling her that. He had to have told someone. Going into the field without letting someone know was suicidal.
“Then he must be on to something.” Layla’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. White topped the knuckles of the hand where she clenched the bag. “Well, let’s get you cleared for duty.”
With her heels tapping loudly on the floor, she stormed to the farthest cabinet and threw it open.
The Smartphone in my pocket vibrated and I jumped. Crap on a cracker! I screwed the cap on the bottle to stop from reaching for the cell. Had the CeeBees finished decoding the cryptogram? Or had Tobias called? Should I look?
“Is something the matter?” Layla tugged a square, metal tray from the cabinet and wheeled it over to me.
Blue Maneuver Page 24