by Неизвестный
"I don't see why I can't even go for a walk,"she groused to the empty corridor. "There's no one within a thousand kilometers of this place."
"That wouldn't hide you from a spy satellite or a high altitude craft scouring the area."Alex's deep voice startled her so much she pulled a string loose on the borrowed sweater.
"Shit."She tucked the string back into the loose weave. "Don't do that. What are you doing here? I thought you'd flown back to civilization."
"I did. I'm back now. Didn't you hear the perimeter alarms going off?"He stepped up close to her, grasped the string she'd snapped and idly toyed with it.
He was too close. Her heart started to hammer and not from surprise. "No. I didn't hear anything."Was that her voice? She was having trouble concentrating on his words. The heat of his hand seeped past the loose weave of the sweater, tingling low in her abdomen. She could practically feel his touch on her skin even through the top of her jeans. Her stomach clenched.
He frowned, seemingly unaware of the havoc he was causing her system, damn him. "I'll check the system now. You should've heard something before I deactivated the alarms from the ship when we flew in."But he didn't move away to check the system. He stayed where he was, standing too close, staring down at her, his big body still except for the movement of his strong fingers playing with the hem of her sweater.
She should tell him to step back. She should say something. She lifted one foot, put her toe down on the ground behind her, intending to move away from him. Instead she stayed where she was with her heel in the air, feeling like a magori-fox staring into the eyes of a cor- snake.
Put your foot down, Gina. Take the step back. She needed some space between them. To concentrate. Say something. Who does he think he is, playing with your sweater? Put him in his place. "Where's Nathan?"That wasn't what she wanted to say. Her voice sounded faint and breathless. Did he notice?
The curve of his fascinating mouth said he did. "He's checking the external sensors and alarms."
She wasn't sure how he managed it, but he seemed to suddenly be closer without taking a step. Had she moved closer to him? God, she hoped not! How embarrassing. He smelled wonderful--a warm, musky cologne she couldn't put a name to. What was he doing with her sweater? "Any progress?"
His faint smile turned into a full-blown grin. "I'd say so."
"I meant about finding the person responsible for the threats."Her cheeks heated, and she had to look away from that tempting mouth.
She was acting like a schoolgirl. This was silly. She barely knew him. He was too close and she needed to move back.
But it was so good to see him. She hadn't even realized she wanted to see him this much. It wasn't as if she'd been thinking about him. Well...maybe her thoughts had strayed to him occasionally over the last few days. Okay, so maybe she'd thought about him constantly. But that was no reason to get embarrassed and shy. He didn't know she'd developed a few detailed fantasies over the last few days with him in the starring role.
Did he?
They'd hardly talked on the flight in. He and Nathan had only hung around for a day and half to make sure the house was secure. She'd talked to him about what was necessary during that day and a half, but not much. A few passing comments. A lecture from him on the rules and security procedures. He was always calm, always professional, never seemed to lose his temper, even when she'd lost hers when his professionalism turned to condescension. Yes, she knew not to use the external communications system, no she wouldn't try to contact anyone, yes she would keep the place sealed, of course she'd keep the internal alarms online. How old did she look, five? He remained calm and reasonable the entire time--an attitude that infuriated her. He'd certainly never made a pass, or anything that might be confused for a pass.
They had two reasonable conversations. One a brief twenty minutes during which she dragged out of him that he had a degree in archeology and hated beets. The other when he found her staring at a newscast.
There was a riot in Capital, in the business district. A group advocating shifter exterminations met a group against them across a line of guards. The shouting and yelling escalated to throwing debris over the guards' heads, to throwing mini firebombs, to an all out riot. Three people killed, twenty injured, rioting spreading throughout the district. She hugged herself and wondered if her work would help the situation or make it worse.
When Alex walked up behind her and asked if she was okay, she told him the cause of the fight--more rumors that shifters communicated via telepathy. Alex's face closed up.
"Why does that bother you?"she asked, half afraid to know.
"Would you want a dangerous animal to be able to read your thoughts?"There was something like fear in his voice. When she turned, faced him fully, he shrugged, smiled and said, "At least they can't understand what we're thinking. That'd be worse, having your thoughts read by someone who could actually understand."
She'd let the subject drop, afraid to say more, and he'd left her to watch the rest of the riots. She had wondered after that if he'd ever worked a case involving the shifters, if there was anything personal in his view on them. But she never asked. She was afraid she wouldn't like the answer.
That was the closest they'd gotten to a personal conversation. Nothing intimate. He'd never even looked at her in any way that could be considered personal.
Well, there was that one time. She'd caught him when he didn't think she was paying attention. The look in his eyes then had nearly swept her feet out from under her and provided plenty of inspiration for her recent fantasies. But that was the one and only time she'd caught a hint of anything other than professionalism from him. Which had been pretty damned frustrating. Even arguing with him, she'd enjoy the challenge, the buzz of testing him. He, on the other hand, had seemed immune.
Then the two bodyguards had left, relegating her to the care of a few droids and her own devices. She'd been stung by a momentary rush of panic at the thought of them leaving. Up to then, she'd been able to forget about the graphic and grisly description of her death spelled out in the last message her father had received. She was disgusted with her panic and tried to hide it. But her fear must have shown because Alex paused before leaving, touched her shoulder and gave her his word he wouldn't let anything happen to her.
He assured her there was a guard near by who'd come out if she hit the panic alarm they made her strap to her wrist. The gadget was roughly the size, shape and style of a wristwatch, but the face was blank. She still wondered who the guard was and where he was hiding. She hadn't seen anything resembling a shelter out there. But if Alex said there was a guard near by, she believed him. She couldn't explain why, but she did.
Over the last three days, she'd worked hard to put both him and the threat to her life out of her mind. She'd failed repeatedly on getting him out of her thoughts, but she'd managed to push the threat to her life away. She'd scoured the computer's libraries, read a few out of date journals, an entire novel and one fascinating book on the ethics and philosophy of space travel. Outside of reading, though, there wasn't anything for her to do. And the inactivity made her feel like a captive.
The lack of company hadn't helped. Which had to explain why she was having such a strange reaction to Alex's sudden appearance. She was sure it explained the tickling flutter in her stomach and the warmth spreading over her skin. Her reaction had nothing to do with the fact that her fantasy was standing in front of her, still toying with the hem of her sweater. What was he doing with her sweater?
"We've made some progress on the threats too,"he said. "I've left a colleague behind to follow up a lead. I wanted to get back here to make sure you were all right."The hand playing with her sweater stilled. "You are all right?"
The heat already coiling low in her stomach exploded lower. Breathe, Gina. Breathe. "I'm fine. I'm bored. Can I go back to work soon?"Her gaze darted down to where his hand still gripped her sweater. For a disorienting moment, she though he might start to lift the sweater up, revealing ba
re skin beneath. Her gaze jumped back to his. Would he try it?
He grinned. "Soon."
Gina swallowed hard. Silence stretched between them. She felt like her balance was going, because she could feel herself tilting closer to him, the heat of his body drawing her, the tingles in her own body begging for his touch. She flicked her tongue out to wet dry lips.
Alex's voice was husky when he murmured, "Maybe there's something we can do about your boredom."
Her heart kicked over and her stomach dropped. What the hell was going on with her? She never reacted to men this way. Never. God, she really was leaning into him. She needed to move back. She still had one foot behind her, toe resting on the ground. If she just dropped her heel, she'd put some space between them. That's all it would take, a little space between the heat of his body and her tingling skin and she'd be able to think clearly.
She was a logical, rational woman--most of the time. She didn't fall for men she barely knew. This was just chemistry. He was good looking. She was bored. She could move away from chemistry. That's what she should do. Drop her heel. Move away from temptation.
He bent closer, washing her lips with the warmth of his breath, and she leaned into him instead of away. "I've been thinking about you, Gina. Probably too much for my own good. But I haven't been able to stop thinking about you."
The sharp echo of footsteps caused Alex to jerk his head up. Gina looked past him to see Nathan Longfeather trotting down the hall toward them, blaster in hand. The disruption to whatever had been about to happen between her and Alex, if anything had been about to happen, left her feeling a strange mix of disappointment and relief. She rubbed her lips together to dispel the tingles.
Alex gave her a wry grin then glanced over his shoulder. When he saw the expression on his partner's face, he moved back and pulled his own weapon, instantly serious and professional. "What's wrong?"
"Did you check the perimeter alarms yet?"Nathan's hazel-gold eyes flicked to Gina then focused on Alex.
Gina felt Alex shift beside her, not much, but enough so she got the feeling he was uneasy with Nathan's question. "Not yet."
"An area of the external sensors has been blasted out. Not subtle. And fresh. Maybe only ten minutes, twenty before we landed."
"Damn. Have you signaled BinRal?"
"He's on his way in now. We can't hole up here anymore. Plan B?"
"Yeah. I'll get her out of here; you search the interior. We'll meet in the ship. Lifting out in twenty."
"BinRal?"Nathan asked.
"I'll intercept him on the way. He should have enough time to sweep the area and still make it to his ship before we blow the place."
Gina finally found her voice. "Blow the place! What do you mean 'blow the place'?"
Alex spared her a patient and irritatingly professional look. "This house has been compromised. We have to abandon it. But we can't leave it intact. There're ways a smart person could use the computers here to track down some of our other retreats. We can't allow that."
"But... but there's someone here already. And you're only giving us twenty minutes to get away."
"Don't worry,"Nathan said, already moving back down the corridor. "We've handled situations like this before."
Alex took her arm with his free hand and led her toward her sleeping quarters. He kept his blaster raised, scanning the area as they moved. He didn't say anything while she collected her meager pack from her bedroom, only continued to scan, his big body filling up the door to her small room. "I'm ready,"she said, and they were moving down the corridor again, this time toward the external airlocks.
3.
The frigid air stole Gina's breath the instant they stepped out of the airlock. She'd shrugged into a parka and snow boots but the sudden sharp cold of the wind bit through the heavy material. She threw her pack over her shoulder then stuffed her mitten-covered hands into the pockets of the parka. Alex had on a thin pair of gloves that didn't look like they could protect his hands from a cool breeze, though he assured her they were sufficiently warm and left him the dexterity he needed to use his blaster.
"Now what,"she asked, her breath a visible cloud. The wind blowing through the mountains announced the coming of a storm that was predicted by to the morning's weather readings. With little to do, she'd found herself checking on the weather four or five times a day, mildly fascinated by the changing shifts in atmosphere. She had to admit, though, the idea of leaving before the storm arrived appealed to her.
Alex scanned the landing area from the relative safety of the airlock's outer frame. "Now, we go to the ship, contact our associate, and prepare for liftoff."He kept his gaze trained on their surroundings as he spoke. His alert stance had Gina examining the area, too. She studied the shifting snow covering the landing pad between them and the silver and black ship, the flat expanse of snow beyond the ship before the hill sheered off into a deep valley, the rugged sweep of mountains beyond that.
Nothing. She couldn't see anything unusual. Until a huge, black shape rose up beside her.
Gina stifled a screech as Alex swung around, blaster raised. The figure stepped away from the wall, dropping the hood of his parka. Alex cursed and pointed the blaster toward the sky.
Gina blinked.
The large Binnean smiled.
At least, that's what she assumed that particular expression was when a Binnean did it. It wasn't really a comfortable expression for a human to witness. With silky black hair covering their entire bodies, long, thin noses in brown skinned faces and startling green eyes, the Binnean, despite their bulk, didn't look nearly as dangerous as they were--until they smiled.
The Binnean murmured something in a voice too quiet for her to hear but loud enough to make Alex chuckle. "BinRal, this is Gina Xanacovich. Gina, En-BinRal Ol Binda t'Clav. He's been your guard for the last few days."
"Pleasure,"she said, stretching out an instinctive hand before remembering that the Binneans had a different custom for greeting someone new. She shifted her hand to point upward, palm facing BinRal. He smiled again and gently placed a huge, brown, six-fingered fist against her palm.
"See anything?"Alex's voice cut into the greeting, turning the atmosphere serious again.
"No one. But there's evidence of a ship landing beyond the ridge where the perimeter sensors were shot out. There were tracks in the snow leading to the sensor line from the landing site. The tracks belong to a single human male. But at the perimeter, the tracks disappeared. No sign he moved back to the craft either. He could be using a glider on silent."
"Or there's at least two of them and the second one flew their ship in after the sensors were shot out. No sign of a second landing at the perimeter, so that means the ship must be small enough to hover and still pick up a passenger. AX47 D series is capable of that."
"So's the new JUP-3."
"Either way they're both too small to hold more than three people. At least we're not outnumbered."
"Unless they had another ship waiting to be signaled in after the perimeter sensors were disabled."
"Damn,"Alex breathed, letting his gaze travel over the landing pad again. "We need to leave. Now."He unzipped his parka enough to reach inside and pull out a small, flat comm.- link. He pressed an area on the card, waited a beat, and Gina heard the static laced sound of Nathan's voice acknowledging the call. "Get down here now, Nate. We can't tell what kind of company to expect."
Gina frowned, turning her attention to the valley just the other side of the landing pad. What was that? It wasn't a noise exactly. More like a vibration. She strained to hear against the peel of the wind. "Alex?"She tapped at him, without taking her eyes off the valley. He waved away her hand, still talking to Nathan. "Alex,"she said more firmly, taking hold of his arm and squeezing through the thick material of his coat. "What is..."
Before she could finish her sentence, a small white-blue ship rose up from the valley. Except for the cloud of hot air escaping from the thrusters, the ship blended perfectly with the backgrou
nd. In fact, if she hadn't been watching, she might have missed it. It hung silently for an instant. Then a bolt of white light lashed out from the laser cannons beneath the ship's hull.
The sleek, silver and black ship on the landing pad rocked with the force of the impact.
"Goddamn it."Alex raised his blaster but at that distance, he couldn't come close to hitting the attacking ship. BinRal raised a huge blaster cannon from somewhere--inside his parka?--and aimed at the ship. His first shot skipped across the top of the hull, deflected by a shield. The laser cannon fired again, this time melting a black hole across the top of Alex's ship.
Still cursing, Alex shouted into the comm-link, "Nate, bring secondary shields up on our ship!"And BinRal fired another shot. This one sizzled the shield on the attacking ship, but didn't come near the hull. "Get inside, now!"Alex shoved her back into the airlock just as another shot slammed into his ship. The secondary shields crackled as they absorbed the shock, turning an unhealthy shade of green. "Shit, they're not gonna hold. What the hell is that ship firing?"
"I don't know,"BinRal answered, calmly aiming his shoulder cannon for another shot. "But I'd like one."
The last thing Gina saw before Alex and BinRal dragged her into the airlock was the orange flame that erupted when the shields on Alex's ship buckled under the onslaught. The airlock sealed, a steel door banged down, and Alex was shouting into his card again. "Terminate destruct sequence. We've got serious problems here."
Nathan's voice came back out of the card, clearer now that they were inside the house. "Destruct sequence terminated. Auxiliary defenses coming online."There was a slight pause then, "Fuck! They've destroyed the ship. Looks like we move to plan C."