by Robyn Bachar
Gabriel shook the questions away and focused. The system was unfamiliar, but he didn’t need to understand it or the science of what it controlled. He simply needed to locate the most recent files and track their origin, all while ignoring the flashing lights, increasingly hysterical wails of warning signals, and the constant drone of the PA system calmly requesting that all nonessential personnel please evacuate the facility.
There. It was a clever little bugger, disguised as a simple software update. Nothing that would have raised concern, even if the engineers hadn’t been distracted by the death raining from above.
“I see it,” Gabriel said. “It originated from off world.”
“Can you ID the source? Is it Soviet?” Lindana asked.
“I need time to analyze it. The program was disguised as a software update, so on the surface it appears as an Alliance transmission.”
“Copy it to your hand held. We’ll look at it later,” Lindana said. “And get a copy of the plant’s security camera footage. Might be the only chance we get to ID the attackers.”
“It still doesn’t make any damn sense,” Watson muttered. “Why would anyone—oh shit, that’s bad. The cooling system is down, and I don’t know if we can bring it back online from here.”
“I’ll do a manual reset,” Mike said.
Watson shook her head. “No. There’s no time for that.”
“I’ll make the time.” Mike stepped back and rubbed his palms against his trousers. “The system is fucked. We don’t have enough people to bring everything back online, and even if we did, there’s no fire control out there. Sooner or later the wind’s going to blow the fire this way, and...”
“So let’s get out of here now, Mike. Together.” Chief Watson grabbed Mike’s arm, and he pulled away.
“No, Maria,” Mike said. “If we leave, it’ll melt down now. I can buy you time, maybe an hour at best. You need to get everyone else out. Now. Shut up and go!”
“No!”
Lindana stepped forward and held up a placating hand. “We don’t leave anyone behind.”
“No, Captain. I’m not one of your men. You don’t get to make that call.”
Lindana nodded, her mouth set in a grim line. “All right. Godspeed, Jenkins.”
Mike turned to Chief Watson. “I’m sorry. Get everyone out. I’ll make this count.”
Maria nodded sharply, and then leaped on him with a fierce hug. She murmured something to him in rapid-fire Spanish that Gabriel didn’t catch. He turned away and spied Lindana fixing him with a hard stare. Maria has a boyfriend on New Nairobi.
Shit. His heart sank at the realization that his mission had caused this tragedy, and Lindy blamed him for it.
“Do you have everything?” Lindana asked.
“Aye, Captain,” Gabriel confirmed.
Lindana squared her shoulders. “Then let’s get the hell out of here. Mike, keep your comm open. We need constant updates.”
“You’ll have them.”
Lindana led the group out of the power plant, barking orders to the group and to the others over her comm. Maria kept glancing back, her steps hesitant as she followed her captain.
A sick, grim certainty settled into Gabriel’s stomach like a stone—an hour was hardly enough time to evacuate a colony of this size, and they needed to make every second count. They had no way to search the shattered buildings for survivors, or to reach people trapped beneath the rubble. They could only help the fortunate few who had been able to reach shelters during the bombardment, and for everyone else New Nairobi would become their tomb.
“Jiang, I need you and a team from the Mo to do a quick and dirty supply run. Food and fuel, whatever you can load up. Sveta and the Novosibirsk’s crew will concentrate on people moving.”
“Aye, Captain,” Jiang said.
“Sveta, we need to divide into teams to reach each shelter. Jiang will transmit the GPS locations of each one to you.”
“We won’t reach all of them in an hour,” Sveta said.
“I know.” Lindana’s voice was strained, and Gabriel couldn’t resist the urge to touch her shoulder with a reassuring squeeze. She glared at him for a moment, but her expression softened a fraction as she cleared her throat. “Focus on the shelters closest to the spaceport. We’ll do what we can with the time we have.”
What came next was chaos the likes of which Gabriel hadn’t seen since the war. The air was thick with choking smoke and the stench of blood, death and singed flesh. Gabriel’s eyes burned, but he soldiered on, following Lindy’s barked orders, focused on the sound of her voice above the cacophony. Screams, cries, wailing sirens—God, it was awful. They herded the first group of survivors toward the waiting ships, and then went for more.
Forty-five minutes.
Lindy ordered Ryder and Gabriel to accompany her as she checked the local public elementary school in hope that the attackers had left it untouched. Luck, or perhaps divine intervention, proved Lindana right, and they discovered the students and teachers huddled inside their classrooms.
Twenty minutes.
A stream of survivors trickled away from the destruction and headed toward salvation as Gabriel’s team moved to another location. People, pets and livestock, all terrified, some injured, limping toward safety.
Ten minutes. Nine, eight...
Gabriel and Lindana approached the spaceport with what they expected to be their last group, and they found Chief Watson standing at the bottom of the Novosibirsk’s ramp, arguing with Sveta.
“Let me take the shuttle.”
“No,” Sveta said. “Captain Nyota, talk sense into your chief.”
Chief Watson turned toward them, wringing her hands. “I can take the Blackjack’s shuttle and get Mike.”
“No,” Lindy replied. “There isn’t enough time to get the shuttle’s engines online.”
“I have to try.” Maria’s voice jumped a panicked octave. “We can’t leave him.”
“Shuttle is not safe,” Sveta said. “We have not scanned for traps or security devices. You push the wrong button and bam! You explode before you even get to power plant.”
“Maria, Mike made his choice,” Lindana said. She reached for the chief, who jerked out of the way.
“We never leave a man behind!”
Gabriel spied Ryder and Tomas approaching, their expressions grim. Ryder reached for Maria as though attempting to calm her, and as she turned her frustration on him, Tomas stood behind her and pressed a hypo to her neck. Chief Watson’s eyes rolled back as she crumpled, and Ryder caught her and scooped her up like a small child.
“Take her to the Mombasa’s med bay,” Tomas ordered.
“She’ll hate you for that,” Gabriel said. It was a subject he was well versed in.
“I know.” Tomas grimaced, and then turned to his sister. “Let’s go.”
* * *
From orbit the New Nairobi colony had been reduced to a dark smudge of smoke, as though viewed with a camera with dirt on the lens. Silence reigned in the Mombasa’s cockpit as the crew stared down at the devastation with morbid fascination, unable to tear their focus away. So much death.
Lindana hadn’t seen so many civilian casualties since the war, but unlike the devastation she had seen then, this was personal. New Nairobi had been their home port, their sanctuary during downtime between missions. These dead weren’t nameless or faceless, they were people she had known. Friends, family—she and Tomas had a group of distant relatives who owned a restaurant there, who were always excited to see their famous cousins and ask about their travels. Lindana didn’t know if they were among the survivors. The fortunate few had made it to shelters in time and lived to be evacuated, but their homes were destroyed.
And for what? One woman’s memories about some doomsday weapon? This was evil.
And Lindana was responsible—the colony had been attacked because of the Mombasa’s connection to it. The colonists’ deaths weighed on her like an iron yoke, crushing her hope of surviving this mission.
“Jiang,” Lindana said. She croaked the name, her throat still parched from heat and smoke.
“I’ve got it, Captain,” Jiang said. They exchanged a heavy glance, and Lindana nodded and retreated to her quarters.
Lindana showered and changed her clothes but she could still smell smoke, as though the scent was permanently seared into her nose. A blinking light on her tablet alerted her to a new message, and she picked it up with shaking hands. A message from Tomas was at the top of the list.
READ NOW.
Now? That did not bode well. Lindana tapped the attachment and her eyes widened—it was Gabriel’s file. She scanned through it quickly, zipping through screen after screen of mission data. Much of it was still encrypted, having foiled Tomas’s best attempts to crack it, but her blood drained as she read the rest until she held the tablet with cold, numb hands.
TARGET ELIMINATED.
Over and over, a litany of the dead. There were other entries, many marked with a less threatening note of ASSET ACQUIRED, but it was clear that for the most part, wherever Gabriel Steele went, death followed. And she had let this man—this monster—onto her ship, into her life.
Lindana set the tablet aside and paced the perimeter of her quarters until she was certain she’d worn a path into the floor. She was exhausted but couldn’t stand the thought of sleep and the nightmares it was sure to hold, hungry but couldn’t bear the thought of food. Everyone was waiting for her to give the next order, and she had no idea what to do.
The door chime pinged and she bid the person enter, expecting Tomas or Jiang. Instead, Gabriel stepped into the room and locked the door behind him. Lindana glared at him, hoping to ignite him with the fury of her gaze.
“This is your fault.” Lindana’s voice cracked on a sob as she pounded her fists against his chest. Gabriel grunted in pain and caught her wrists before she could hit him again. “If you’d told me the truth we could have warned them!”
“You don’t know that,” he said softly. “No one could have known that this would happen.”
“Bullshit. You’re supposed to know. That’s your damn job!”
“Lindy, please—”
“You’re just trying to cover your ass because you lied to us about this mission. All you do is lie. You destroy everything you touch. I read your file.” Gabriel’s pale eyes widened as Lindana continued her tirade. “You’re a murderer. A walking honey trap. You lured people in with your cheekbones and your good manners and betrayed them. Over and over, a river of broken lives flowing behind you.”
“I followed orders.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
“The agency isn’t always concerned with right and wrong. They’re focused on the greater good, and yes, I did what Command asked of me, no matter how despicable. I lied, cheated, stole to achieve my mission objectives. I ruined marriages and destroyed families in the name of gaining intelligence, and yes, I did kill.”
“Why?” Lindana tested his grip on her wrists and he held her fast—probably rightfully worried that she’d hit him again.
“Because that intelligence saved lives. My work... I did all the dishonest deeds that a soldier couldn’t. Things that a politician couldn’t dirty his hands with. Awful things, Lindy. But they needed to be done. The people I killed were enemies of the Alliance and they needed to be stopped.”
“Why are you here if your work is so damn important?”
“Because I couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t want more blood on my hands. Other core colonist agents have been dying, colleagues of mine killed in the line of duty. Too many to be coincidence. I didn’t want to be next, and when this opportunity presented itself it was like a sign. A miracle. Lindy, you are the only person who has ever loved me. The real me. Everything else I’ve done since joining Intel was fiction. I seduced women and men who were enamored of an illusion. They loved the lie.”
“I don’t know the real you. I don’t know if I ever did. How can I trust you? You’ve told so many lies you wouldn’t know the truth if it bit you in the ass.”
“That isn’t another spanking reference, is it?” He quirked a brow, and she couldn’t resist a smile.
“Not helping.”
“Understood. What does your heart tell you?” Gabriel asked.
Lindana lifted her chin. “Nothing. It’s broken. It’s like a clock that only has the right time twice a day.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I can’t rely on my heart,” Lindana insisted. “It leads me astray.”
“My heart led me here. This is the only place I belong. With you.”
Lindana winced and looked away. “Don’t say that. You belong on the core colonies, being lord of your manor, rebuilding your family fortune like a proper gentleman. They might take you back if you’re properly apologetic. You probably have some sort of intel they’d find valuable.”
“No. That’s the life my father wanted for me. I want a life with you.”
Lindana closed her eyes, but she couldn’t escape the thoughts of what might have been. What would their lives have been like if they had stayed together? Would they have stayed with the Alliance? Or settled down in New Britain and raised a brood of precocious children on the Steele family estate?
Gabriel touched her cheek, turned her face to his and kissed her. Gently at first, likely braced for the worst, but then with more fervor when she didn’t haul off and slap him. Her body woke at his touch, every inch of her responding to his kiss. Lindana’s toes curled and her limbs tingled as warmth coiled low in her belly. We don’t have time for this. Then again, this might be the only time they had. The entire Soviet navy and one of the bloodiest pirates in space were out to kill them. They were dead men walking. It was only a matter of time before they joined their comrades decomposing on the colony below.
“It doesn’t matter now,” she murmured. “It’s too late for us.”
“I refuse to believe that.”
“Then you’re an idiot.”
Gabriel grinned. “I prefer to think of myself as a reformed hopeless romantic.”
“And you think we’re going to fly off into the sunset and live happily ever after?” Lindana said skeptically. “This isn’t a fairy tale, and I’m not a princess.”
“You’re more like the knight in this equation,” Gabriel said.
“Really? You expect me to rescue you?”
“You’re the only one who can.”
Lindana went weak in the knees and she clutched his shirtfront. To hell with it—she was desperate to feel something other than fear and frustration. She steadied herself, slid her hands up his chest and framed his face. She studied him intently, as though deciphering the pattern in his pale eyes that would reveal the depth of his sincerity. Her scrutiny was interrupted as Gabriel kissed her. She leaned into him as he embraced her, finding solace in his arms, and then she sighed up at him.
“I hate you.” Lindana pushed the coat from his shoulders and the garment flapped to the floor.
“I know.” With a slight wince he pulled the shirt over his head.
Lindana’s heart stumbled at the sight of his scars, old and new. The menders had nearly healed his recent wounds, leaving bruises and new, pink flesh as reminders of where he had been injured. When they had met at the Academy they were both young and unmarred, but time and war had left them both with roadmaps marking landmark injuries. Gabriel had nearly died twice on this mission alone. She chewed her lip as she touched the pink blotch of an old burn scar that spidered across his chest.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Energy pistol, close range. Fried my armo
r.”
“Ouch.” Lindana stepped back to shed her top. Gabriel gazed at her as she stripped, as though memorizing every line of her body and committing new details to memory. He frowned and traced a thin scar across her abdomen, and Lindana shivered at his touch.
“What happened?”
“Pirate cutlass. Sliced through my body armor.”
Gabriel tsked. “I thought the captain doesn’t participate in away missions.”
Lindana smiled dryly as she reached to unfasten his pants. “The captain doesn’t. We were boarded.” Her smile turned wicked as she stroked his sex through his briefs. “Don’t worry, Lieutenant. I know how to handle a sword.”
His chuckle of amusement quickly deepened to an appreciative moan. “I do love a woman who enjoys taking command.”
They quickly shed the rest of their clothing and then tumbled atop the bunk in a tangle of grasping limbs, eager to touch and taste every inch of each other. Lindana trailed kisses down the column of his throat and traced his collarbone. Gabriel was thinner than she remembered, muscles honed by time and use. He’d lost the soft edge of civility, and was lean and tough like a proper soldier.
“Were you always this pale?” Lindana asked. She straddled his hips and laid her palms atop his chest. Gabriel covered her hands with his, then drew one to his lips and pressed a kiss against her palm, followed by the inside of her wrist. Lindana had never before considered the wrist to be an erogenous zone, but she realized she’d been missing out as a curl of delicious pleasure shivered through her.
“Too much time spent in space,” he said. “Not enough natural sunlight.”
“You won’t be seeing much of that aboard the Mombasa, either.”
“You’ll have to be my sunshine then.”
Lindana rolled her eyes. “That was terrible. Adorable, but terrible.”
“I’ll endeavor to make it up to you.” Gabriel tried to tug her beneath him, but she grinned and pinned him.
“It’s my ship. I’ll drive. Besides, you’re still wounded.”
“Yes, ma’am. I enjoy working beneath you.”