She wondered at his words and their meaning. He seemed to be referring to more than just the Egesa. Had he known all of her troubled thoughts or just seen the emotions in her eyes? She used to be called a cold bitch by subordinates because of her hard exterior and the ability to hide her emotions. So much had changed. Even she had been altered by this terrible war.
He crouched down and peered deep into the cave. “Now…who has come to rescue you?”
Tara’s heart clenched. How did he know? She couldn’t let them find Alexa. Who knew what they might do to the babies. She scrambled to her feet to face him. The man on the ground stirred and groaned. His eyes opened and he struggled to sit up. Please, Alexa. Somehow, get those babies out of here. They might be the only legacy that Xylon has left.
Chapter Five
Planet Earth, State of Colorado, U.S.A.
Underground Tracking Facility
The door to the waiting room clicked and opened. Everyone turned toward the sound and Torque felt the tension in the room escalate. A lone man in civilian clothing entered and closed the door behind him. He glanced around the room then abruptly stopped halfway. “Ramrod!” A smile spread across his face.
Sam stepped forward. “Tee. It’s great to see you, man.” He stepped forward and clasped the man’s arm, giving him a half hug. “Where’s Jaeda?”
“She’s on her way. We’ve got a hell of a mess on our hands.”
“Yeah, I know it. Even so, it’s great to be home.” Sam turned toward the group. “Everyone, this is Kirk Logan. He’s in charge of all the scientific shit they do down here and second in charge of overall operations.”
Logan nodded.
Torque studied the man. Logan looked familiar but he couldn’t place why, which escalated his tension. He’d figure it out. Until then, he intended to remain wary of everyone down here.
“Have you been cleared on this project?” Sam asked his friend.
“ACE? Yeah, I was brought up to speed. To tell you the truth, it’s like some alien sci-fi flick. I wouldn’t have believed any of it if someone had told me this was going to happen. But here you are and here they are and this is war.”
“Officially declared?”
“Who knows? Everyone’s in a panic. When the hits started coming in, all armed forces immediately went to Defcon 2. I think we’re holding there for now but I’m not sure. We keep getting conflicting information. I really hope you all are up to saving our asses.” He reddened slightly. “Sorry, ladies.” He looked at the rest of the group. “Does anyone need anything? Something to drink or eat? I don’t recommend the stuff in the machines back there. It’s older than I am.”
“We’re fine,” Brianna answered for the group.
The door swung open and a woman entered. Torque froze at the sight of her. Tall, creamy-looking skin, long black hair pulled away from her face, light gray eyes. Her! He moved toward the back of the room and into a shadowed corner, not wanting to be noticed yet, so he could silently observe her.
Her gaze immediately went to Briggs. “Sam!” She gave him a quick hug. “I’m so glad to see you.” She grasped his hand. “I hope you’ve brought the cavalry.”
“I did my best.” He turned. “Everyone, this is Jaeda Spargo. She’s the operational lead at the facility and our official contact.”
Brianna cleared her throat and stepped forward. She glanced up at the hidden camera, before her gaze settled back on Jaeda. “Can we speak freely?”
Sam stepped away from Jaeda and turned toward Brianna. “This is Brianna Koll,” he introduced. “She’s ranking officer of the group.”
Torque noticed that he didn’t introduce her as his mate. Interesting. Though if he had, it would have stirred up more curiosity and questions than they had time for.
“We can speak freely. I temporarily shut down the surveillance in here before entering.” A compassionate look entered Jaeda’s eyes. “I’m sorry about Xylon. I heard about what happened.”
Her response caught Torque’s attention. She’d heard about Xylon? How? All communications were down.
“We’d hoped for survivors,” Kirk added. “How many are left?”
“Specific numbers are unknown at this time,” Brianna answered. Her voice remained steady, though her eyes revealed genuine sorrow. “Our communications grid was disabled. Our own people here on Earth may not even know what happened.”
Torque remained quiet, waiting for Brianna to ask more questions. Why was she just standing there? Jaeda was the exchange linked with Briggs. But with the grid down, certain knowledge wasn’t possible, unless…
He didn’t like the explanation that popped into his head. His impatience and anger slowly began to grow. If she or Kirk Logan had made an agreement with Daegal, then that would explain their knowledge.
What would he do if she actually had betrayed Laszlo and Xylon? The answer came quickly and without mercy. First he’d fuck her. Then he’d see to it that she was sent to a banishment zone for the rest of her life. And Logan? Well, he’d feed the man to the nearest pack of blood minions he could find. A merciless sentence for both. But this was war and the survival of his people came first.
“When I couldn’t get in contact with Laszlo, I went to other sources.”
Other sources? Torque shifted and his hands clenched into fists. He itched to step forward and shake the truth out of her.
Leila cocked her head. “What other sources?”
“Before we get too sidetracked…” Briggs turned toward the group. “Let me introduce everyone else so we can move things along.”
Torque shook his head. Briggs had interrupted on purpose to deflect the conversation. Torque was almost certain of that. He was surprised when Brianna still didn’t say anything. Even Leila’s curiosity had been piqued. It didn’t make sense unless Briggs had already told his sister something that she hadn’t bothered to pass along. He stepped out of the shadows and came forward. When Jaeda noticed him, Torque saw her freeze and her eyes widen.
Briggs continued speaking and told her about Halah piloting the ship and waiting on their return. He explained Leila’s role and told Jaeda about the serum. Torque wondered if she’d even heard his words for her gaze never left his. He stepped close as Briggs introduced him to her.
“This is Warrior Torque Koll. He’s Brianna’s brother.”
Brianna said something to him but he missed it. “What was that?” he asked, never taking his eyes off Jaeda.
“Do you two know each other?”
Torque smiled. “Yeah.”
“No,” Jaeda answered at the same time.
Brianna frowned as she looked from one to the other. “Which is it?”
Torque allowed the smile to slip from his face. “My apologies. For a moment, you looked familiar.” He wasn’t mistaken but no need to complicate their mission even more. Not at the moment.
Before anyone could question them further, the door again opened and a large man entered. His age, uniform and bearing indicated he was a man of importance. “People.”
Jaeda turned. “General Adair. I’ve been looking for you. Your office—”
“Destroyed. All my staff gone. I was in the facility, in the weapons section, when we got hit.” A flicker of emotional pain entered his eyes before he nodded to the others. His gaze settle on Sam, who was standing stiff as a rod. “Colonel Briggs. Good to see you again. At ease. I’ll assume these others are the Xylons. I have an update. We are officially at war. The Egesa have begun transporting to the planet. Our fighters have been unable to shoot down very many of their ships. They seem to have some sort of shielding that we can’t easily penetrate. But we have been holding our own with their ground troops. They’ve requested meetings with the leading governments. So far only China has agreed to meet with them. We’re waiting to hear your recommendations.” He looked over the group. “Who’s in charge?”
“I am,” Brianna said, stepping forward. “Class 1 Command Warrior Brianna Koll, 1210854684846, Sir. The Egesa do not n
egotiate. Talking with Deagal would be futile and only weaken your position.”
“Understood and my thoughts exactly, which I’ve already passed on to our senators. You and Colonel Briggs will accompany me to a high-level meeting with the president to help us lay out a plan of attack. I’ve been informed that your planet has been taken over by the Egesa. Can we count on reinforcements from your people or are we on our own?”
Informed… Torque wondered at their level of knowledge. Someone had to be feeding them data. Someone with comm abilities who hadn’t been affected by the attack maybe? They were genuinely concerned about their planet. He could see that. So they had a common enemy. Daegal. But they must also have a common ally.
“Reinforcements are on the way, General. We also have Xylon Warriors already armed and on Earth. Torque Koll, my brother here, will coordinate.”
Torque stepped forward. “General.”
The general nodded. “Given the fact that we can’t effectively shoot down their ships and will have to defeat them from the ground, what do you have for us?”
Brianna took the lead once again. “We brought a serum for Earth’s military forces. It will protect your male soldiers from the Egesa poisons and diseases. Even one scratch could be deadly for your people.”
“Yes. We’ve already received reports of such about our wounded. What about our women?”
“Unfortunately, due to hormonal fluctuations, it’s too unpredictable and not entirely safe for human females. I advise that your women remain out of situations that could put them face-to-face with the Egesa. But for the males, the serum will work quite well and will also help them heal at a faster rate, which will greatly increase your attack effectiveness. Our senior healer here, Leila Abdera, can coordinate with your medical teams. The serum will have to be tested, and of course then duplicated and distributed quickly.”
“Spargo, you’ll see to that.”
“Yes, Sir.”
The general’s brow furrowed. “I’m still not hearing how we’re ultimately going to defeat these creatures. Especially if your reinforcements don’t arrive on time.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Leila said, stepping forward. “Very few of them will have any natural immunity to your diseases. Maybe only those who have served a goodly length of time here at a substation. If you have something that humans are now protected against but was otherwise deadly in the past, we can infect the Egesa and take them out. It will naturally have to be safe for our people too.”
Torque nodded. “That might work. But it will need to be fast-acting, so they fall quickly and don’t have a chance to create anything to counteract it. I can design a bullet-casing delivery system. Something that can be shot right into them. The disease will need to be highly contagious to their kind, otherwise it won’t get rid of enough troops quickly enough to tip the balance in our favor.”
“I’ll contact our top center for contagious disease research for you,” General Adair responded. “If any such thing exists, they’ll be the ones who know about it and have it. If we can get them some Xylon blood and DNA, they can test for safety.”
“I can arrange that,” Leila replied. “I’ve also brought along my own device for additional testing.”
“Good. The military has already provided the center with an Egesa for study. We’ve managed to capture a handful of their soldiers and we also have several bodies, so we’ll be able to do tissue tests.”
“General,” Brianna spoke up. “Even if we’re successful with the serum and infecting the Egesa, the sheer number of them is not going to make this fight easy. If enough Xylon Warriors survived and make it here in time, we can and will destroy them. Our fighter ships carry more deadly and powerful weapons than theirs do. But if our backups don’t arrive—”
“Understood. With Xylon’s apparent power, how did they defeat your planet, Commander?”
“They used an older bomb that we weren’t prepared for. One that was supposed to have been deactivated long ago due to its complete destructive powers.”
The general paused and looked uncomfortable. “Could they use one of those weapons on Earth?”
“No, Sir. The bomb, along with its delivery system, is too massive and complicated. It can’t be transported aboard their current ships even if they have additional PowerIIRads that are still functional. This takeover will be done country by country, not all at once.”
“Good to hear.” Adair’s posture relaxed, but only slightly. “Briggs, you and Commander Koll are with me. The rest of you are with Jaeda. I’ll have a rep from the disease center contact you. Let’s work fast, people.”
Torque watched Sam and Brianna follow General Adair out to their meeting. He stepped forward. “I’m going to need to get out of here and over to the Xylon substation to coordinate with the warriors in this area, then get the word out to the other substations around the planet.”
“The substation has been abandoned,” Jaeda said. “All the Xylon substations have.”
Leila gasped. “What? How do you know? What happened?”
Torque’s eyes narrowed. “Good questions.” Doubts about Jaeda and where her knowledge was coming from again plagued him. His heart warred with his head about whether to trust her or not. He rarely trusted anyone. He’d thought she would be different. Damn it. This woman was different! She had to be.
“I’ve been in contact. When the attack occurred, they relocated. Several substations on the planet were raided early on. Somehow the Egesa knew the locations. A traitor, no doubt, tipped them off. Or maybe Daegal somehow tapped into their computer systems to locate them. Either way, they didn’t fare well. Those warriors remaining and unharmed bugged out.”
“Are you still in contact?” Torque asked. Tension made his voice gruffer than he’d intended. The thought of another possible traitor caused his to stomach churn.
When had their society become so corrupt? How had they not stopped it? They’d managed to weaken Daegal’s hold on many warriors, not long ago, and a goodly number of them had returned to Xylon and remained loyal to this day. But not all had returned home and those were the true traitors in his eyes.
“I have to wait until they call in. Someone checks in every few hours as they’re able. The last time I spoke to them I informed them that I’d hoped you, more warriors, were on the way.”
Torque stepped closer. “How do you know all this?” He understood, being the exchange contact, that she was probably routinely kept informed about their conflicts with the Egesa. But without current communications there was no way that she could know so much about recent events.
Kirk cleared his throat. “I think we better get things moving and save some of the questions for later. I can take care of the virus-serum preps with Dr. Abdera, Jaeda, if you want to start working on a delivery system with Officer Koll. Maybe you can answer some of his questions at the same time.”
Jaeda nodded. “I’ll get you a full report too, Kirk. Is that acceptable to everyone?” she asked, looking at Torque and Leila.
Torque grumbled. He was damn tired of his questions being put off. He would find the answers he needed. Sooner or later. “Give us a minute.” He turned toward Leila and pulled her away from the other two. He reached into his jacket. “Here. Take the vid-cell. If you feel like things are going down wrong and you’re in danger, contact Halah to get you out of here.”
She shook her head. “You’ll need that to stay in contact with the other warriors once they check in.”
“Apparently Jaeda has contact, so I’ll use her device. This one won’t be compatible with what they’re using anyway. Brianna is safe with Sam. I’d feel better if you had a way off this planet if needed. Take it.”
“Fine.” Leila took the device. “But I’m not going anywhere without the rest of you.”
Torque turned back toward Jaeda and Kirk. “We’re ready.” He watched Kirk escort Leila out of the room. After they left, the air filled with tension and it was almost too quiet.
Ja
eda finally broke the silence. “I’ll take you to our artillery section. You can work with our top man on the virus delivery system. Once the on-planet warriors connect with me—the group in this area, that is—I’ll arrange a meeting. The leader will know how to pass the information along to the other substation heads. With any luck, we’ll be able to coordinate everything quickly before the Egesa get a hold that’s too tight to break.”
Torque simply nodded, though he found it damn hard to hold his tongue. Now was not the time to confront her. He had plans to put into motion. But soon…
* * * * *
Leila sat with Kirk in a small room off the facility’s main med-lab. She’d told the staff what she would need to duplicate the serum and thankfully they’d had the correct equipment. She’d also had a sample of her own blood and DNA sent to their disease center for testing. Before they progressed any further, she needed to test what they had on a human host—a host without an ounce of alien blood. “Why does Sam call you Tee?”
“It’s from back when I was a captain in the Air Force before I decided to get out and work as a civilian contractor for the military instead. Captain Kirk Logan…”
She didn’t understand and it must have shown on her face.
“Captain Kirk. James T.”
“Was he some renown military officer? A hero perhaps?”
Kirk chuckled. “Yeah. I supposed he was.”
“Then the nickname is a good one. One of respect.”
He simply nodded but looked at her warily as she rolled up his sleeve. “You didn’t test this on Briggs?”
“We couldn’t. He had to go through the initiation rite for us to get his altered sperm. His chemical makeup has now changed, so we need a new subject for the test.”
“Initiation rite? Sperm?”
“It’s complicated. The serum wouldn’t have any effect on him. And we didn’t have any other purebred humans around at the time to test it on.” She hesitated. “You are purebred, right? No alien DNA?”
“As far as I know.”
She nodded. “Good.”
Depths Of Desire XW5 Page 9