by Anna Hackett
Emerson hid her grin. She guessed a former SWAT-team member didn’t have much interior-decorating experience.
“And Cruz and Marcus smashed down a wall.”
Emerson’s eyes widened. “They what?”
Cruz smiled. “We put a door in so Bry’s new room is linked to our place.”
As Emerson clicked on her m-scanner, she felt a surge of happiness. To see two tough warriors like Cruz and Santha take a young girl under their wing…
“Your vitals all look good. Today, I’m going to run a more in-depth scan on your head. Okay?”
“Will it hurt?” Bryony’s voice held the slightest tremble.
Damn the raptors. “No, it won’t hurt.” Emerson swung the larger resonance scanner around on a flexible arm. “I’m just going to put it near your head. It’ll make a little humming noise and send a picture to that screen there—” she pointed at the comp screen “—and you won’t feel a thing.”
Santha grabbed the girl’s hand and squeezed. “When you’re ready, Bryony-girl.”
Bryony looked at Santha, then Cruz. “You’ll stay?”
“For as long as it takes,” Cruz promised.
Bryony straightened her thin shoulders. “I’m ready.”
“Good.” Emerson turned on the scanner. “It’ll take a few minutes, so just relax. Anyone need a drink?”
Santha and Cruz shook their heads.
“I’m okay,” Bryony said.
“Hell Squad off today?” Emerson asked casually.
“Yeah.” Cruz crossed his arms over his chest, the tribal tattoos on his arms visible under the edges of his T-shirt. “Everyone needed a bit of downtime. They’re in the gym, beating each other up. It’s Reed, Claudia, and Shaw versus Gabe. Marcus is refereeing.”
Emerson stilled. “Three against one?”
Santha made a noise in her throat. “Yeah, they should have made it four against one. Gabe is super strong and super deadly.”
A scowl took over Cruz’s face. “And lately…well, Gabe’s gotten even more intense, more driven.”
Emerson’s stomach turned over. Yeah, he was very clearly winding tighter and tighter, and when he finally snapped…
“How are you, Emerson?” Santha asked quietly.
“Fine. Busy.”
“You were trapped with the raptors and took quite a beating—”
“All recovered.” She smiled, and wondered if it looked as brittle as it felt.
“Yeah, physically, maybe. But it takes time for the wounds inside to heal, for the terror to fade.”
Santha’s quiet tone resonated with understanding. Emerson knew the woman had been forced to watch her sister be attacked by raptors, and later dealt with the shock of finding her dying in a raptor lab.
But Emerson knew Santha threw herself into her work fighting the raptors.
And Emerson was doing the same thing, albeit on a different battlefield. “I’m really okay.”
The other woman didn’t look convinced, but before she could talk again, the scanner beeped. With a frown, Emerson turned her attention to the monitor.
What the hell? She studied the screen, and tapped it, double-checking the odd result.
“Doc?” Cruz asked.
“There’s…” She glanced at Bryony, not sure if she should bring this up in front of her. But steady, pale-green eyes stared at her. Eyes that had already seen too much and seemed far too aged for a ten-year-old. It was Bryony’s head, and after everything she’d been through, she deserved some honesty.
“There’s something lodged in your head.”
Santha gasped and slipped an arm around the girl.
Anger flashed over Cruz’s face. “What?”
Bryony swallowed. “But my head doesn’t hurt, and I feel okay. So, what is it doing there?”
“I don’t know.” Emerson felt like such a failure with that answer. Despite treating and monitoring all the lab survivors, she still didn’t know exactly what the aliens had done to these people, or why. Yet.
She tapped the screen, running an analysis on the object. She frowned again.
“It appears to have a crystalline structure.” She looked over the girl’s head at Santha and Cruz. “The computer says it’s made of the same substance as the information crystals the raptors use to store information on.”
Cruz cursed.
Bryony glanced up. “Naughty word, Cruz.”
“Sorry.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Doc Emerson?”
Emerson crouched down to Bryony’s level. “Yes, sweetheart?”
“I want you to take it out.”
“I think—”
Bryony shook her head hard. “No. I want it out.” Her tone was firm.
Emerson released a long breath and looked at the couple. “I think I can remove it. It’s very close to a hole in her skull. It’s likely how they inserted it in the first place.”
Cruz pressed his hands to the back of his head. Santha touched his arm. “We both trust the doc. More importantly, Bry trusts the doc.”
Emerson looked at the little girl. “I’ll have to put you under for the procedure.”
A tear slipped down the girl’s cheek, cracking Emerson’s heart. But she nodded.
“All right.” Cruz ruffled Bryony’s short hair, then his gaze hit Emerson’s, liquid-brown eyes drilling into her. “Do it.”
***
Gabe hated being on base patrol. He much preferred to be blasting aliens.
He walked through the trees, his carbine in his hands, keeping an eye out for anything unusual. The base was hidden in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Standing here, in the peaceful tranquility amongst the trees, you couldn’t tell a fucking alien apocalypse was raging only miles away.
He stepped over some rocks and saw a flutter of bright color. A rainbow lorikeet swooped down from the trees, landing on the grass near a rock, completely unaware it was sitting right near an entrance to Blue Mountain Base. The base’s entrances were well hidden, all blending into the natural scenery to avoid detection. It also helped that the raptors seemed to hate being amongst trees.
“Nice day, huh?”
Gabe eyed his partner. Reed MacKinnon was the newest member of Hell Squad. A former United Coalition Navy SEAL, the tall, rangy man had outdoorsman stamped all over his rugged, tanned features. He was apparently magic in the water, not that they got the chance to go in the water much, and Gabe had seen firsthand that the guy was damned good with explosives.
And he was also Zeke’s replacement.
Gabe grunted in reply. He didn’t hold it against the guy, but every time Gabe looked at Reed, he thought of his dead twin.
“You know, mostly we’re doing night infiltrations, wading through raptor blood, or dodging raptor poison.” Reed took a deep breath. “Fresh air and sunshine are a nice change.” His gold-colored gaze fell on Gabe. “You gotta take the good when you can get it. Helps you shake off the bad.”
Gabe looked away. “Yeah.”
“How’s the doc?”
Gabe barely contained his jerk. “What?”
“Emerson? I haven’t seen her much since that fucked-up mission. She was hurt pretty bad.”
“She’s healed. Always in the infirmary, helping someone, performing surgery.” She seemed fine.
But Gabe would never forget her swollen, black face. Or her nightmares and screams the few days after. She’d been so shaken lying in that infirmary bed that he’d stayed beside her the entire time. Holding her hand when she’d woken in a cold sweat.
He wondered if she still had the nightmares. Each time he’d visited her, she’d seemed okay. Tired, but okay.
“Seems like a workaholic to me. Hiding behind work.”
Gabe frowned. Hell, that did sound like her. Thoughts crowded into his head. Damn, he hated patrol. He kicked a dead branch that lay on the ground. There was no time to think when you were firing at raptors.
“We should check the solar array,” Reed suggested.
>
They worked their way over to the solar-power system. At first, the trees in the area just looked like the rest of the bush. But when you looked closely, you could see that the veins running through each leaf were actually wires. Each leaf was a tiny photovoltaic cell.
They wandered around. Everything was quiet, and it was making him antsy. He’d much rather be on a quadcopter heading into the city. Actually fighting the aliens, not soaking up the sunshine like they were on some damn picnic.
He heard footsteps heading in their direction. He stiffened. Quiet ones, still a little way off. “We’ve got company.”
Reed straightened and cocked his head. “I don’t hear anything. You’re damn spooky when you do that.”
Yeah, Gabe’s hearing was enhanced, as were his strength and endurance. It made some people nervous. He listened to the approaching steps. “Two people.”
Reed clutched his mayhem, a modified carbine with a mini-explosives launcher attached. “Raptors?”
“Nope. Human. Women.”
“You can tell?”
“Too light for a man.”
A second later, two women dressed in fatigues emerged from the trees. He instantly recognized Mackenna Carides, the second-in-command of Squad Nine. She was tiny, wouldn’t even reach Gabe’s shoulder, but she was all tightly-packed muscle with a tough disposition. She’d even tossed him on his ass once when they were sparring. Not many men could do that, let alone a woman. Yep, Mac was not someone to mess with.
The other woman was of medium-height, with dark, red-streaked hair. She carried her carbine like she knew how to use it, and she had a face that wouldn’t have been out of place on the beauty magazines he knew some of the base’s women traded like gold. She was all cream skin, large, whisky-colored eyes and long dark lashes. She was another Squad Nine member, but he couldn’t remember her name.
“Gentlemen,” Mac said with a nod.
“Out for a stroll, ladies?” Reed asked.
“We’ve come to relieve you. Marcus wants you down in Ops.”
Gabe straightened. “Something up?”
“Something. But I don’t have the details. We were just told to take over your patrol and send you down.”
“Thanks,” Reed said. “We’ve just covered the southern quadrant and we were headed east.”
“Got it,” Mac said.
Gabe nodded at them before heading for the closest entrance back into base. It was a disguised hatch that opened to reveal a ladder heading downward. He and Reed descended, their boots ringing on the metal. They navigated the tunnels until they reached the Operations Area. It was always a buzz of activity. The main room was filled with comp screens on the walls and desks. A mix of military staff moved around, monitoring drone feeds, coordinating operations. It was known as the Hive.
“Gabe. Reed.”
The feminine voice made them both turn. Elle, Hell Squad’s communications officer, was waving them over to a conference room.
“Hey, Elle,” Reed said.
“Hi.” She had a bright smile that lit up her pretty face. Her dark hair was tugged back in a ponytail. Once a Sydney socialite, her family had been killed in the first wave of the invasion and she’d had to trade her designer wardrobe for fatigues. But she was a damned good comms officer. “We’re in here.”
Oh, and she was also Marcus’ woman. Gabe would never have picked it. Small, slender Elle and rough, scarred Marcus. But to Gabe’s surprise, they seemed to fit each other, like two pieces of a puzzle.
Marcus and the rest of Hell Squad were waiting. As was Emerson.
Gabe drank her in. Her hair was in its usual neat bob, blonde strands brushing her jaw. She wore her white lab coat, and she didn’t meet his gaze, but she was busy chatting with Shaw, Hell Squad’s sniper.
When Emerson let out a laugh, Gabe scowled. Shaw was also a notorious ladies’ man.
The door opened and another man strode in. General Adam Holmes was the head of Blue Mountain Base. Gabe had heard some of the squad members grumble about him. The man was military through and through, his khaki uniform always pressed, his dark hair always neat. Gabe actually liked him. From what Gabe had seen, the guy dedicated everything he had to keeping the base safe, and humanity fighting back against the alien invaders.
“I got a call that this was urgent,” Holmes said.
Marcus nodded. “The doc found something.”
Emerson stepped forward. “This morning, I was running routine checkup scans on one of the raptor lab survivors, Bryony.”
A few gazes swung toward Cruz. He was standing, arms crossed, looking pissed. Everyone knew he and Santha had practically adopted the young girl and were protective of her.
“The scan revealed something lodged in her brain,” Emerson said.
“Fuck,” Shaw breathed.
“I removed it.”
“She okay?” This from Claudia, Hell Squad’s only female member.
“Couldn’t be better. Recovering and milking it for all it’s worth,” Emerson said with a small smile.
“Ice cream,” Santha added. “Kid will do anything for ice cream.”
“What was the item you removed?” Holmes asked.
Emerson nodded at Elle. An image appeared on the large comp screen on the wall.
Gabe frowned. It looked like a small chip of black crystal in a perfect square.
Elle took over. “It’s made from the same crystal the raptors use to store their electronic data.”
“Got anything off it?” Holmes said, frowning at the screen.
“Not yet, we’re waiting for Noah—”
The doors slammed open and a man strode in. Noah Kim was dressed in black today. With his long black hair brushing his shoulders and his high cheekbones, it made him look like a fucking pirate. He was actually some sort of genius, with a crazy-high IQ, and the ability to make computers dance to his tune. He was also in charge of comp systems, the drones, and helping with the power systems.
“I got something off the chip.” He rattled off some file names to Elle. A second later the image on the screen changed. “The item is a smaller version of their data crystals.” He scowled. “It was recording the girl’s bio data—”
“The girl has a name,” Cruz growled.
Noah held up his palms in an apologetic gesture. “Right. It was storing Bryony’s bio data.”
“That would be useful,” Emerson said. “The…tests they were carrying out, they wouldn’t need to constantly monitor her. Just wait a set period of time, then remove the chip.”
Noah nodded. “It also stores visual images.”
Marcus leaned his hands against the table. “Things she saw?”
“Yeah. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Noah tapped at the comp screen on the table. “But I think you’ll find the images interesting.”
The pictures flashed up. They were a bit blurry, distorted. But clear enough.
Some were of humans lined up in beds, tubes running from different parts of their bodies. Gabe took a deep breath. It was the lab where they’d rescued the girl and some others.
There were raptor faces. They might be humanoid in shape, but their faces were pure alien. Thick, gray-mottled, scaly skin covered large, hairless heads. Their features were heavy, their jaws elongated and their mouths full of teeth.
Then the pictures showed something new.
Everyone in the room gasped, or hissed in breaths.
It showed large tanks, hundreds of them, all in rows.
“What the fuck?” Marcus said.
Shaw moved forward. “We saw tanks like these in the second lab. The one at Luna Park. But there were only three of them.”
And they’d had humans floating in them.
Gabe cursed under his breath, remembering something else from the other lab, too. When Marcus had yanked the poor people out of those tanks, they’d died instantly.
Chapter Four
Gabe watched image after blurry image of the tanks flash across the screen.
Gabe knew her sister had died in one of these labs.
“Stop there,” Emerson said.
Elle stopped the slideshow. “Is that—?”
The image showed the equivalent of a raptor comp screen beside one tank—large and black.
“Those scrawls and scratches, that’s text, right?” Emerson moved closer. “Elle, can you translate it?”
They were slowly building up their knowledge of the raptors’ language, and Gabe knew Elle was one of the best at deciphering it.
“I think…” Elle tapped and swiped the screen of her tablet. “Yes. It says Genesis Facility.”
“Genesis,” Emerson murmured. “Let’s see the last few images.”
They saw other human prisoners being moved through the lab. Bryony must have touched one tank, because the image showed a small hand pressed against the glass, the shadow of a human body floating inside it.
Gabe’s jaw tightened. Goddamned fucking aliens.
The image changed again and suddenly, Emerson gasped. The tablet she was holding clattered to the floor. Gabe frowned, and before he realized what he was doing, he took a step toward her.
She was staring at the screen, a closed fist pressed to the base of her throat.
The image showed a raptor. This one looked slimmer than a standard raptor soldier, his face narrower. He was missing an eye. It looked like it had been gouged out; thick scars crisscrossed the empty socket.
“Emerson? Are you okay?” General Holmes asked.
She shook her head and looked away from the screen. Her gaze caught Gabe’s for the briefest second. Tears shimmered in her eyes. It was like a punch to his gut. Emerson rarely cried.
Then she straightened and faced the general. “That’s the raptor who was responsible for…guarding me during my short-lived captivity.”
Gabe’s jaw clenched so tight he thought the bone would splinter. “That’s the fucking raptor who beat you?”
One short nod.
“You’re sure, Doc?” Marcus asked. “They all look pretty much alike.”
“I’ll never forget,” she whispered. “His eye…”