by Gun Brooke
“You heard the admiral, Dwyn,” Emeron said. “All civilians must be kept safe and that means you too.”
“I won’t be left behind while you go risk your life.” Dwyn spoke in an almost menacing tone. “I’m not going to sit here and hide.”
“I know you don’t want to, but Admiral Jacelon made it clear. Besides, you’re in no condition to travel as fast as we have to, to make it there in time. I’ll come back for you as soon as—”
“Don’t you dare patronize me. I’ve walked just as fast as everybody else—”
“For stars and skies, Dwyn.”
Kellen studied Emeron’s face and realized that her frustration bordered on anger. She strode over to them. “Commander, Dwyn, it’s almost time to go.” She looked calmly at Dwyn’s flustered face. “Dwyn, I know you’re not feeling well, but we need you to do something.”
“You do?” Dwyn frowned. “I mean, of course.”
“Oches will be on standby with the communicators and will need assistance. Make sure that you, Yhja, and Trom are well hidden and safe with enough ration bars and water. I want you to handle the short-range communicators, be a relay station of sorts, for when the admiral decides to end radio silence. You won’t be far behind us. We expect you to advance to these coordinates,” she said, and pointed at the map on her handheld computer.
Dwyn hesitated, and for a moment Kellen thought she’d refuse and demand to be part of the reconnaissance team.
“I see,” Dwyn said, finally. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” She began to turn, only to stop and look at Kellen. “I’ll do everything I can to help Ensign Noor keep Yhja and Trom safe.”
“Do you have a weapon, Dwyn?” Kellen asked.
“Yes. The pulse didn’t affect my sidearm.”
“Excellent.”
Dwyn looked at Emeron with a stern expression that softened only when Emeron briefly touched her arm. “You will be careful, won’t you?” she whispered.
Kellen turned her back to them, knowing that yet another personal moment was unfolding.
“Yes,” she heard Emeron murmur. “I will, if you’ll do the same. Promise me.”
“I promise.” Dwyn’s voice was so filled with emotion, she hardly sounded like herself. “I better get ready.”
“Listen up.” Rae hoisted a small back-strap security carrier onto her shoulders. Like all of their packs, it held only ammunition, water, meds, and med kits. Her own contained the same. “Reconnaissance team is moving out and base team will follow shortly. You all know your duties and I can tell you this. I’m certain we’ll be successful. To be absolutely clear, unless I break radio silence, no communication.”
“Yes, ma’am,” both teams echoed.
Kellen walked up to Rae, who’d begun to head out as soon as she finished speaking. “If we’re not delayed, we can reach the Sacred Space of Light within forty-five minutes. The terrain seems to be dryer and the path is widening.”
“It might be smarter to stay off the path, but that will delay us unnecessarily. It might mean the difference between failure and success. For us, for Mother—”
“I think speed is key,” Kellen agreed. She glanced back at the others and saw Owena and Emeron walking in silence next to each other a few steps behind, both of them holding scanners and keeping track of their surroundings.
“All right, let’s pick up some speed.” Rae began to jog down the path, her lithe, compact form moving easily despite the fact she’d been on her feet for so many hours already. Kellen joined her, and behind her she heard the other two women do the same.
*
Weiss had made them wait at least half an hour before she returned to guide them into a large clearing. Surprised to see an empty space in the middle of the jungle, Dahlia sank onto the silken grass, her aching legs refusing to cooperate any longer. The grass smelled of something between lavender and lemon, and she inhaled the invigorating scent deeply.
The two men carrying M’Ekar put the stretcher down next to her, half in the shade, and she looked with concern at the once-so-formidable man. His face was a blotted pattern of pale and red. She felt his forehead and yanked her hand back with a gasp. He was burning up and tremors reverberated through him. He obviously had a high temperature, and if he was shivering, it was climbing still.
“He needs water.” She rose to her knees and waved at Weiss. “Kyakh, you have to give him some water.”
“There’s no water left. He’ll have to wait with the rest of us until our backup arrives.”
“Are you telling me that nobody has a single drop of water?” Dahlia was parched too, but she wasn’t dying of gangrene.
“Yes. That’s what I’m saying. I distributed the last among you half an hour ago.”
“Big mistake,” Dahlia muttered. “I certainly didn’t get any, and neither did he or anyone else. If you question your precious Ms. White, I’m sure she’ll say she gave it all away, but you know as well as I do what a ruthless liar she is.”
The calm expression on Weiss’s face darkened, and she strode toward White, who sat in the shade of a tree. A muted, but obviously heated, discussion followed, and then Weiss stormed off to the center of the clearing. She opened her small back-strap security carrier and pulled out an object that she placed on the ground. Pulling at a thin metal rod, she extended something that resembled an antenna.
A faint moan from M’Ekar diverted Dahlia’s interest back to him. “Are you awake, Hox?” she asked, and bent over him. She removed her jacket and placed it around him, even if she realized he needed to cool off. It was unbearable to watch him shiver like this.
“Madame Diplomat,” he whispered huskily. “I am not worthy of your attention.”
“Hush. Conserve your energy. I just wanted to see if you were conscious.”
“So thirsty.”
“There’s no more water. I’d look for berries if I knew what was edible in this damn forest. Not that they’d let me.”
“You are too kind.” He coughed, and to her dismay small droplets of foamy blood streaked the corners of his mouth. She wiped them away with her shirtsleeve.
“Just rest. Help will come.” She was telling the truth, she thought with gallows humor. If a search-and-rescue party didn’t get here, then Weiss’s backup would arrive. Either one would bring medication and water.
“I brought this upon us.” M’Ekar spoke hoarsely. “My hunger for vengeance destroyed me. And you.”
“Shh.” Dahlia couldn’t believe the twinge of pity that filled her when she witnessed his remorse. He was too sick to fake it, she thought, and like so many other people, he didn’t recognize the truth until it was too late. Even she was losing faith in her rescue and expected Weiss’s backup to descend from the sky any minute.
“It’s true. I gambled. I thought if I took you back to Onotharat with me, they’d reinstate me as ambassador, perhaps even promote me to a higher rank. I spent all my days and nights on Jasin planning with young Desmond. He’s dead.” M’Ekar coughed again, and more blood foamed around his lips. “I saw the same ambitious hunger in him as I did in myself at that age.”
It was all true. Dahlia couldn’t contradict him, and she couldn’t forgive him for his actions either, but part of her pitied him.
“Quiet. I’ll go ask Weiss if any of her crew can look for signs of water around the clearing.”
“Thank you.” M’Ekar closed his eyes. He still trembled, but his body seemingly didn’t possess even enough energy to keep that up.
She rose and walked on shaking legs over to Weiss, where she stood with two of her crew members. Nobody stopped her, but Dahlia saw White shift her weapon on her lap, pointing it directly at her.
“What?” Weiss looked impatiently at her.
“Since nobody has any water, and we actually don’t know the ETA of your backup,” she said, careful to infuse disbelief in her voice, just enough to make Weiss glare at her, “could you let a couple of your crew scout for water close to the clearing. Surely a
brook or something must run through here. Everything is so lush, and we more or less walked in water mixed with mud the last few hours—”
“Get back to where you were sitting,” the man next to Weiss snarled.
“Wait. She has a point, actually,” Weiss conceded. “Take two crewmen and as many bottles as you can carry and go look for water. I don’t think we have very long to wait, but it’s good to be prepared.”
“Aye, Captain,” the man said, taking his frosty glance off Dahlia. He waved to one young man and one woman, and they began to gather bottles from the rest of their shipmates.
“You have your moments,” Weiss said ironically. “I can’t quite grasp why you’d bother to worry about M’Ekar, though. He’s meant nothing but trouble to you.”
“True. I suppose that’s the difference between you and me, Weiss. I may have a reputation as a tough bitch and instill fear in quite a few people who’ve had to deal with me in negotiations, but ultimately I have a code of conduct, a humanitarian point of view that you lack. Granted, I’ve seen faint glimpses of something resembling humane traits, but you quickly shed them. Only your cohort in crime, White, surpasses you when it comes to being ruthless.”
“Really.” Weiss snorted. “You’re very perceptive.”
“White can’t help herself. She’s a sociopath. You are not, which makes your actions even more reprehensible. If you think it’s strange that I pity M’Ekar, you shouldn’t. He’s as twisted as White, a product of his upbringing and disposition. You are calculatingly committing these actions out of greed, or perhaps even lust for adventure, I’m not quite sure which. You aren’t pitiful, Weiss Kyakh. You’re worthy of nothing but contempt.”
Dahlia turned and walked back to M’Ekar. Sitting next to his stretcher, she wiped his chin and cheeks as he coughed. She didn’t know if the trauma he’d been subjected to or the gangrene eating away at his body caused his inner bleeding. But she was sure that if help didn’t arrive soon, it would be too late for him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Rae stopped and instinctively raised her fist. Behind her, Kellen, Owena, and Emeron stopped also. Listening intently, she motioned for them to step away from the wide path and into the dense undergrowth. Next to her Owena scanned the immediate area. She held up three fingers and pointed northeast.
“Weapons?” she mouthed inaudibly, knowing that Owena’s scanner could detect faint traces of plasma-pulse residue.
Owena ran another scan and nodded solemnly, holding up three fingers again. She acknowledged the signal and reached for the scanner, which Owena handed over so she could examine the readings. The three individuals were about fifty meters away and not as closely grouped together as she would have assumed. They moved in what had to be a search pattern, and for a moment she allowed herself to hope that her mother had escaped. But if that was the case, surely more than three people would be out looking. Dahlia was their treasure trove.
“All right,” Rae whispered, “here’s what we’ll do. We’ll split up in pairs. Kellen, you and Owena start in from the left flank, Emeron and I from due south. Let’s find out why these people are so far away from the rest of their gang. I’d like to apprehend them without a single shot and without them alerting their associates. All right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the other three echoed.
Before Kellen and Owena left Rae and Emeron, Kellen looked pointedly at her without saying a word.
“I know,” Rae said quietly. “I know. And you too.”
“Yes. See you soon.”
Rae and Emeron returned to the forest path, since walking along the wide trail would create much less sound than forcing their way through the tall grass and bushes among the trees. Emeron used a scanner Leanne had given her, since the EMP had incapacitated her own earlier. It wasn’t as elaborate as Owena’s, but it showed how well Owena and Kellen progressed.
The three green dots that indicated the location of the enemy kept nearing, veering off farther to the east. The clearing was yet another fifteen minutes away, and a larger yellow dot showed where the rest of the mercenaries, and presumably her mother, were. At this point, Rae could care less if they apprehended M’Ekar. She was only interested in rescuing Dahlia.
When they were ten meters from the location of the three mercenaries, she and Emeron slipped into the undergrowth, careful not to make a sound. Ducking, they sneaked up on the closest one. A young man, dressed in black, dusty coveralls and carrying at least ten bottles slung over his shoulders, walked along a smaller path, looking back and forth, obviously searching for something.
Emeron gestured toward the man and mimicked drinking. Rae nodded. She’d already figured out he was searching for water. The possibility that her mother had been without water for quite some time, something that hadn’t even occurred to her before, enraged her. Emeron gestured to her, her weapon ready and set to heavy stun. She nodded and ducked out of the way, allowing Emeron to take aim.
Five seconds later, she heard a faint thud. The mercenary lay on the ground, the bottles scattered around him. Emeron scanned the immediate area again and nodded. “The others are thirty meters to the northeast,” she whispered.
“Good. Let’s take care of this one.”
They ran over to the man and Emeron grabbed some thin restraints from her belt. She secured his hands and feet and connected them behind his back, then pulled out a roll of bandage and pressed some of it into his mouth before she wrapped the rest around his head, to keep the muzzle in place. Rae made sure his airways were clear, grabbed his legs, and with Emeron’s help dragged him into the dense shrubbery behind two fallen trees.
Another scan later, Emeron smiled broadly at her. “Second one down,” she said quietly, and held up the scanner. Another green dot had stopped, apparently immobilized by the two blue dots that indicated friendly forces.
“Perfect. Let’s go help them with the third.”
They crept forward, ducking when the trees temporarily grew farther apart. She checked Emeron’s scanner and saw that Kellen and Owena were approaching from the north.
“Arrto? Where did you go? Arrto,” a female voice called, startling Rae since it sounded so close. She tugged Emeron with her and ducked behind a tree.
“Arrto? Belliaz?” The woman started to sound worried, and if she yelled any louder, the mercenaries at the clearing would descend upon them. Rae knew she couldn’t wait any longer. Stepping out on the path, right in front of a young woman, she smiled politely. “Hello. Lose someone?”
“Who are you? Where’s Arrto?” The woman’s eyes grew wide. “You’re SC.” She raised her weapon, but Rae fired first. Another beam singed the air from behind the woman, who slumped to the ground where she stood. Kellen appeared behind the female mercenary, looking sternly at Rae.
“I thought you agreed to be careful,” she said.
“I did. And I was. I actually think I stunned her first.” She checked the woman’s pulse. “Oh, dear. I don’t think she’ll be a problem for quite a while. She’s been double stunned, and that’s a bit too much for such a small creature.”
Emeron used her restraints again and they hid her like they had the others.
“She recognized the uniform instantly,” Rae said. “But before she saw me, she acted very casual.”
“In other words, they don’t have a clue we’re on their trail,” Emeron said. “And we can safely say they have no scanning capability. We would have seen some action from the clearing by now if they did.”
“I agree,” Kellen said. “I suggest we stay divided and approach the clearing from two directions.”
“Good idea.” Rae thought quickly. “Kellen, Owena, you have the better scanner. Circle the camp to the east side and remain there. Emeron and I will reconnoiter from here and also connect with the base team when they’re in position. If you notice an approaching backup ship or anything else that dramatically changes our plan, break radio silence and page me and the base team.”
“Understood.” Kell
en and Owena climbed a small ledge and began to circle the clearing at a safe distance.
Rae motioned for Emeron to follow her, and they stepped off the main path, careful where they placed their feet. Birds chirped and the sun was now so low the trees created long shadows that efficiently hid them. Her heart picked up speed as they approached the clearing. Something was in the air, something tense. She could practically smell it. Was it her own fear of what she would find when she reached the place where her mother was held captive? Shrugging off the ominous feeling, she ducked under some low branches and sneaked up behind a dense thicket. Emeron joined her with the scanner ready.
“All mercenaries within the clearing,” Emeron mouthed. “The protector and Commander Grey halfway to their position.”
Rae nodded briskly and carefully parted the thin branches of a bush. The sun bathed the people clustered at the south end in a warm golden glow. It was hard to distinguish individual features at this distance. The group of mercenaries was about seventy-five meters away. She took out her binocular specs and made sure they were set on anti-reflection mode. She certainly didn’t want to send flashes of light from the bush they hid behind.
After pulling on the binocular specs she adjusted the magnification. People were standing or sitting in groups, and at first she couldn’t detect any familiar faces. She adjusted the sharpness of the binocular specs, and this time it took only a moment to find Dahlia.
*
Dahlia watched White stalk back and forth, glancing at her chronometer. “Something’s wrong.” She stopped in front of Weiss. “They’ve been gone too long.”
“I agree.” Weiss stood and waved two of her crewmen over. “Go check out the situation. Don’t separate.”
“Aye, Captain.” The young men walked toward the tree line and soon were out of sight.
Dahlia looked down at her lap, where M’Ekar’s head was resting. She’d convinced Weiss to place his stretcher farther toward the tree line, for more shade. When he moaned with every breath, Dahlia couldn’t ignore him. No matter what he’d done, it wasn’t in her to remain indifferent while another person was in such agony.