Noah: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 6)

by Anna Hackett

  And Laura was hiding a whole bunch of stuff under her pristine façade.

  He set the cube down. Maybe she was like Kalina. Kalina had showed Noah one face—a beautiful, caring one—until she’d had his enormous rock on her finger. Then she’d been a first-class bitch who made it very clear she’d married him for his bank account. There hadn’t been a genuine bone in that skinny woman’s body.

  But his gut told him Laura was nothing like Kalina.

  Hell. Just stop thinking about her, Kim. He went back to staring at the energy cube with a vengeance.

  A slim hand slammed down on the desk.

  He looked up into Elle’s pretty face, and the surprisingly stubborn look on it.

  “Noah, I am used to dealing with hardass, alpha-male soldiers. One arrogant genius is nothing. So spill, what’s wrong?”

  “Elle, I’ve got work—”

  “No.” Her tone was hard. “I’m not letting you avoid this. Something’s wrong and I’m your friend.” Her tone softened, her blue eyes earnest. “What’s wrong?”

  “I kissed Laura.”

  Elle blinked. “Laura?” Then her eyes widened. “Captain Bladon?”

  “Yeah.” Well, it had been a hell of a lot more than a kiss, but he wasn’t going into details with Elle.

  “You and Captain Bladon kissed? The woman you’ve been cursing for months, who you said rides you into the ground, who annoys the hell out of you. Who—”

  “Got the point, Elle. Yes, Captain Bladon.” He scraped his hands through his hair.

  Elle cleared her throat. “Did you like it?’

  He raised his gaze.

  She must have seen what was blazing inside him because her eyes widened even more. “Right. You liked it. A lot. And Laura?”

  He sighed. “She’s running from it.”

  Elle perched on the edge of the desk. “She was married, right? Before.”

  “Engaged.” And that was all Noah knew.

  “That’s right.” Elle nodded. “He was a Navy SEAL, I think.”

  Hell, of course he was. Some dedicated soldier who would have suited her perfectly. “She hasn’t said much, but she lost him and her family.”

  Elle pressed her hand over Noah’s. “We all lost loved ones.” Something crossed her face.

  Noah knew Elle had heard her parents die at the hands of raptors on the night of the invasion. And while it sounded like they’d been selfish, vapid assholes, and Elle hadn’t been really close to them, she’d grieved for them.

  “We’ve all lost, Noah. But now, it’s about how we pick ourselves up and move forward. Wallowing in the past doesn’t help. The past will always be remembered, and the people we loved will always be special. But I wouldn’t trade what I have with Marcus for the comforts of life before. And I wouldn’t give him up to insulate myself in case I lose a loved one again.”

  Noah thought of his failed marriage and the painful lesson his ex-wife had carved on his soul. He was honest enough to admit he hadn’t left that behind. It was why he’d told Laura they could just fuck and get it out of their systems. That was all he’d done from the day his divorce was finalized. He hadn’t wanted to risk letting a woman close enough to eviscerate and embarrass him again.

  Shit, he’d been letting his past drive him. He thought of Laura, and those moments when she’d come alive under his hands, pure desire lighting her up. Desire just for him.

  He wanted that.

  He really wanted that.

  Now he just needed a plan to make it happen.

  Chapter Five

  When his comp pinged later that afternoon, Noah noticed with surprise that the message was from Laura. He dropped the energy cube he was working on. Damn thing was driving him nuts, anyway. He tapped his comp and opened the message.

  Hi, Noah. I know you’re working to get that energy cube operational for the illusion system. I was wondering if you’d like to question the raptor prisoner we have in custody. He may be able to help. He’s become a lot more cooperative in the last few weeks. Your call. Laura.

  Noah sank back in his chair. It was a good idea. But damn, he hadn’t expected her to extend this cordial invite to him. He hadn’t expected to hear from her at all.

  He quickly typed a message back.

  Hey there, Captain Dragon. Excellent idea. I’ll be down there shortly. Noah.

  His comp pinged.

  Do NOT call me that ridiculous name.

  Soon, he was striding down the tunnels to the prison area, a smile on his face. As he approached the reinforced metal door to the prison, he saw a young, female soldier standing guard outside. She had gorgeous, dark skin and black, curly hair that framed her face.

  “Hi.” He nodded at her. He’d seen her a few times when he’d come down to repair the comp system.

  She smiled. “It’s Noah, right?”

  “It sure is.”

  “Comp system down again?”

  He shook his head. “Something else I’m working on with Captain Bladon.”

  The soldier nodded and moved to unlock the door. She paused and looked back, her smile still in place. “I heard you like gaming.”

  Noah’s eyebrows rose. “Yeah, I don’t mind it. The tech team has a weekly tournament in a few of the first-person shooter games they managed to bring with them.”

  “I used to play Masters of War with my brothers, and a few of us played when we were at the Coalition Military Academy.” She pushed open the door and smiled at him again. “I thought maybe you and I could have a private gaming session sometime.”

  Noah might not be good at reading subtle signs, but he got this one loud and clear. And shit, looking at her, he would have taken her up on it a few weeks back. But now he wanted a different woman. “I—”

  “I’m sure Mr. Kim would love a gaming session, Maggie.”

  Laura’s sharp voice startled both Noah and the young soldier. She was standing just inside the doorway, watching them.

  Noah walked in. “Another time, maybe,” he murmured to Maggie.

  With a nod, and an embarrassed look on her face, Maggie returned to her guard duty.

  “A gamer, I should have known.” Laura was looking over his shoulder. Like the bare concrete wall was suddenly fascinating.

  Noah shrugged. “I play with a few of my team. I’m not a hardcore gamer like some of them. My old company had a gaming division, so I had to have a working knowledge.”

  “I prefer to read or draw.” She spun and headed off down the tunnel toward the cells. “Come on.”

  He heard something edgy in her tone, but he couldn’t decipher it. With a shake of his head for infuriating, fascinating women, he followed her.

  She stopped at one door, her hands clasped behind her back as she looked through a thick window into the cell.

  Noah stepped up beside her and looked as well.

  The raptor was seated. He was playing with a small tablet, seemingly engrossed.

  “You let him on our system?” Noah asked.

  “Of course not. The tablet has no connectivity. We just didn’t want him bored…that’s the worst thing for someone in captivity. We’ve been helping him learn more English. It was the biggest problem when he first arrived. We had trouble communicating.”

  “But you have people who have learned the raptor language, right?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Elle has been helping, since she has a real gift for it. My people are getting better, but there is still so much we don’t know.”

  Noah released a long breath. “I don’t really want to know about them, I just want them to leave.” Humanity was fighting back, but it was an uphill slog. Noah knew that. For every few gains, there seemed to be a huge step backward.

  “The more we know about them, the more prepared we are to fight them. And to prevent future attacks.” Laura cleared her throat. “Ready?”

  Noah stared at the raptor. “Sure.”

  Laura opened the door. “Good afternoon, Gaz’da.”

  Shit, they knew its
name. Noah watched the raptor straighten. He had dark-gray, scaly skin that covered every inch of him. He had no hair, just scales, and those burning red eyes that were unique to all the aliens.

  “Cap-tain.”

  Hearing the raptor speak in English sent a shiver down Noah’s spine. It had a harsh, deep voice.

  Laura pulled out a chair and gestured for Noah to sit. She sat in the empty chair beside him.

  “Gaz’da, this is Noah. He has a few questions to ask about the energy cubes we have.”

  The raptor’s red eyes focused on Noah. It was impossible to read anything in the creature’s face, he was just too alien, too different. Noah cleared his throat. “I’m trying to use the cube to power some of our technology.”

  A look rippled over the alien’s face, but again, Noah had no idea what that meant. Was he upset? Angry? Resigned?

  “I am…a soldier. Not a—” he said a word in his own language.

  The guttural word didn’t mean anything to Noah. He looked at Laura.

  “The closest approximation we have is scientist,” she told him.

  “Okay. Well, let me ask my questions and you answer the best you can.”

  Gaz’da nodded.

  Noah used simple terms and words, trying to explain what was going wrong. The raptor responded with a few simple suggestions, but he had no definitive answers.

  Frustrated, Noah sagged in his chair. “Thank you.”

  The raptor stared at him. “But I did not provide the—” he paused, like he was searching for the correct word “—information you seek.”

  Noah stood. “You tried.”

  Laura had stood as well. “I’m sorry, Noah. I’d hoped you might get something that could help.”

  God, he wanted to touch her. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “It was a good idea. I appreciate it.”

  “Wait.”

  The raptor’s word made them both turn.

  “I…cannot help you. But a scien-tist could.”

  Noah frowned. “A raptor scientist could give me the information I need?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, unfortunately, I don’t have one handy.”

  “There are some…at a research outpost. In your dry sands…in the center of this country.”

  “Dry sands,” Noah said with a frown.

  The raptor shifted in his seat. “Desert. I know the outpost location. Many scientists there, doing work on your wildlife and minerals. Only one raptor patrol.”

  Noah felt a spurt of excitement. If they could find a raptor scientist with the expertise to help him access and harness the energy cube, powering the illusion system should be a breeze.

  “Thanks,” Noah said and exited the cell.

  Laura closed the door. “What do you think?”

  Noah crossed his arms, watching the raptor settle back into using the tablet. “I should ask you that. You’ve had him here for months. Is he credible?”

  “My gut says yes. He resisted at first, but he’s slowly come around. The recent information he’s given us has paid off.”

  Noah chewed it over. “I’ll have to go to General Holmes and explain the idea. No doubt Hell Squad will want in. But Holmes might not go for it.”

  “I’ll help sell it to him. He’s a friend.”

  “Oh.” An ugly burn started in Noah’s gut. “How close of a friend?”

  She stilled. “Just a friend. Not that it’s any of your business.”

  He wanted to push her against the wall and kiss her until she took those words back. But she was right, it was none of his business. She kept pushing him away, and she had to come to him if they were ever going to see what lay between them.

  Noah’s jaw worked. “Let’s set up a meeting with the general.”

  She nodded and headed back down the tunnel.

  Noah gripped her shoulder, and she looked back at him. “Thanks for this, Laura. It was a great idea and, if it works out, it might save everyone in this base.”

  A small smile played around her lips. “You’re welcome.”

  ***

  As Laura entered the conference room in the base’s Ops Area, she saw that everyone was there already. General Holmes was talking to Marcus Steele and Roth Masters. Hell Squad was lined up against the back wall, murmuring amongst themselves and looking deadly. Elle was seated at a comp, tapping on the screen. A quick glance showed she was looking at a drone feed of the desert. Noah was standing beside her, looking over her shoulder.

  But his head lifted, his gaze moving to Laura’s.

  Her heart gave that hard, one-two thump it always did when she saw him. She might get used to the impact he had on her system—maybe sometime in the next century. She blew out a breath and wished he didn’t look so sexy simply wearing a black shirt over black cargo pants, with his dark hair pulled back at the nape of his neck.

  “Laura, you made it.” Adam Holmes strode over and grabbed her hand.

  “Sorry, last-minute prisoner issue. Nothing to worry about.” She thought Adam looked tired. There were small lines bracketing his mouth, and his blue eyes were weary. He was working hard on Operation Swift Wind, driven by his need to keep every man, woman and child in the base safe. But he was pushing himself hard. She knew he kept himself a little distant from the residents. He had to make tough decisions, had to be the one they could blame for certain things, so it left him very alone.

  Adam stepped back. “So, you going to share this plan you have?”

  She nodded and stepped closer to the large screen on the wall and turned to face everyone. “As you all know, Noah is working on an illusion system to cover the entire Swift Wind convoy. However, with our own technology, we aren’t able to power it.”

  There were nods and a few murmurs.

  “He’s been trying to use the alien energy cubes as a power source but—”

  Noah moved up beside her, so close his shoulder brushed hers. Laura felt a flare of heat inside.

  “I can’t get it to interface.” There was deep frustration in his voice. “Natalya’s tried, my team has tried, and I’ve tried everything I know. Nothing. We’re missing something.”

  Laura looked at him, and he nodded. She picked up the thread of the conversation. “We questioned our raptor prisoner…but he’s a soldier, he doesn’t have the technical knowledge we need. However, he suggested we ask a raptor scientist.”

  More murmurs around the room.

  “And where do we find one of those?” Marcus said, his voice like gravel.

  “The prisoner has given us the location of a raptor research outpost. It’s in the Simpson Desert in the center of the country. I’ve questioned him about this outpost some more. They wanted somewhere isolated where they could study our wildlife.”

  Shaw made a rude noise. “Somewhere where no one would be bothered by the screams.”

  “Maybe.” Laura didn’t like to think about poor animals being dissected and tortured. “But also because they would only have to leave one raptor patrol to guard it.”

  Roth nodded, his rugged face thoughtful. “Then they can have the rest of the troops back in heavily populated areas, fighting and collecting up humans.”

  Laura’s stomach hardened. She knew Hell Squad and Roth’s squad had rescued many human survivors from alien labs and testing facilities. Horror was acid in her veins. The Gizzida had come to Earth to capture humans and turn them into raptors. A truly horrifying thing.

  “Elle, can you bring up the drone images of the coordinates I gave you?”

  The woman nodded. “Sure thing.”

  The screen filled with images of red-orange sand.

  “There’s not much out here. It’s hot and dry and desolate. There’s a lot of sand, and it actually is the world’s largest sand dune desert.”

  “I don’t see anything that looks like an outpost.” This from Hell Squad’s Claudia. “You sure the lizard gave you good intel?”

  Laura nodded. “Coming up on it now.”

  And there it was. Two o
range-colored domes appeared, nestled between large dunes.

  All the soldiers in the room hissed in breaths. They’d destroyed a dome like this only hours from Blue Mountain Base. One where the aliens were turning hundreds of humans into raptors.

  “It isn’t as big as the Genesis Facility,” Marcus noted.

  “There are only two small domes,” Laura said. “Much smaller than the dome you destroyed in the Hunter Valley. From studying the feed, it looks like one is personal quarters and the other is used for their research. Now, I have a recommendation for the mission. I need to perform the interrogation on site.”

  “What?” Noah surged forward. “No way. The squads go in and bring back a scientist.”

  “I questioned Gaz’da some more.” She pulled her gaze away from Noah’s hot one. “There are some high-value scientists out there.”

  “Shit,” Marcus said.

  Roth ran a hand through his hair.

  “What?” Noah demanded. Then his face changed. “Damn. We steal some high-value raptor scientist, bring him here, and they might come after him.”

  Laura nodded. “It might force their hand, make them invade Blue Mountain Base.”

  General Holmes gripped the back of one of the chairs around the table. “Okay Laura, you’re in. You’ll conduct the interrogation on site.”

  “Wait.” Noah stepped forward. “I’m going, too.”

  “No!” Laura snapped. She felt all the eyes in the room swing her way.

  “I’m the only one who knows the technical questions we need to ask,” Noah said.

  “You can sit with Elle, feed me the questions over the comm.”

  Noah shook his head. “If the comm goes down, which it often does, then what? A mission wasted, people put at risk for nothing, and still no way to protect the convoy.”

  Desperation bubbled inside her. She looked at the general. “He’s a civilian. He doesn’t have the training or capability for a mission like this. And he’s too valuable to this base.” To me, a part of her screamed. Something twisted inside her. “We can’t risk having him on the mission.”