Then a bullet whipped past her shoulder. She screamed out, startled by the sharp and sudden pain leaving a narrow groove in her skin. A flesh wound. She told herself it was a mere flesh wound then mentally tore the handgun from Merrill’s grasp. It flew against a wall and disappeared behind boxes. Unperturbed, the assassin removed a submachine gun from her coat and began to spray the room.
How badly did someone want her dead to have contracted Hunt and Merrill? It became a game of cat and mouse, Nisrine running and hiding behind boxes as Hunt stalked her and Merrill shot with surprising accuracy, always close. As the next bullet came close to her cheek, Nisrine tapped into her sixth sense because the next wouldn’t miss. She focused her willpower into a shield of tangible force, creating a barrier around herself like a shimmering globe.
Then she released it. Raw, psychic power swept over the pair of them like a wave. Nisrine doubled over from the effort, but she saw Merrill thrust against the wall, her head striking metal with a sickening thud. She slumped against the floor, but her partner weathered the storm of psionic power with his own battle prowess.
Then the fight was on without distractions. They were blade against blade, slashing and fighting their way through the bakery storeroom. As she missed him, she sliced through a support pillar. The ceiling shuddered.
Crap!
Her skull pounded, and sweat beaded at her brow, making a sticky residue where powdered sugar clung to her skin. She licked her lips and ignored how her muscles trembled.
Their blades crossed again, charging the air with energy. As Nisrine fought him off with a weakened psychic push, she thought of how desperately she wanted to soak in the RV’s spa tub. It wouldn’t be the same without Kaiden banging on the door, demanding his turn for a shower.
Kaiden. The longer she fought Hunt, the less chance he had for survival.
They squared off again, circling one another and seeking weaknesses in their opponent’s form. Without thinking, instinct drove Nisrine to swing. She struck with all of her might, encountering little resistance as the super-powered sword met with his neck. It slid through, parting the flesh and searing it. As the pulsing rod of energy and hyper-charged steel emerged from the other end, Hunt’s head toppled to the ground. His body crashed next, and Nisrine stood breathing hard through her nose. It was over.
Before anything else, she moved to secure Merrill, only to find it was a useless endeavor. Blood pooled beneath her smashed skull along with bits of bone fragment.
A quick search turned up little. She found a few untraceable digital quid cards, a data drive, and their weapons. Nisrine collected everything, including Merrill’s coat, which she swapped out with her own after pulling the medications from the pockets.
“Kaiden, can you hear me? I’m on my way to you.”
No answer.
The next ten minutes through the city back toward the docking fields stretched on and on. A hundred possibilities flitted through her mind, from finding the ship gone to discovering Kaiden’s cooling corpse.
Crouched low, she approached their landing pad with her gun drawn and every sense on alert. An armed, five-man team surrounded the RV, and a man with a scattergun paced by the shuttle. He had broad, bulky shoulders beneath special tactical armor and resembled a member of the security team killed in Jacksonville.
“I thought you said the cyborg was disabled? He overrode our commands to the shuttle.” After a pause, he continued, speaking to a party on the other end of his comm. “What do you mean alpha team failed to neutralize the target? Christ, Romeo, you said this was going to be an easy job for us.”
“She give them the slip?” a second marine asked.
“They’re not responding to comms, so they must be dead, Montoya. Be on your toes.”
Montoya chuckled. “Good. Always wanted a psychic on my kill record.”
“Roberts, I want you on the other side of this bitch, watching for her. She doesn’t know we’re here yet, and she’s probably exhausted from taking down Merrill and Hunt. Plug a hole in her and call it done when she pops up.”
Nisrine’s eyes narrowed. Taking her alive hadn’t been part of the plan, and something told her if they captured Kaiden in his weakened state, he’d be in another lab by the end of the day.
He’d be their toy again.
He’d disappear, a memory missed by Gareth and the mother who loved them both.
Fuck. That. Kaiden Lockhart wasn’t going anywhere on her watch.
Shrugging out of her coat first, she let fury feed her power, augmenting her gift with every pulse of adrenaline rushing into her veins. Nisrine wasn’t exhausted—she was livid, and nothing less than blood would satisfy her.
She dashed toward them and slashed with one hand. A field of psionic energy hurtled at the soldier with the scattergun. The blast lifted him from his feet, hurling him across the landing pad. He slammed against the side of the ship, hit the ground, and didn’t move again.
“Target in sight!” Montoya cried. He took aim and fired, forcing her to take cover behind a massive snowdrift. It hid her location, but it wouldn’t protect her. Roberts and another soldier joined him, their combined firepower keeping her pinned down. She pulled the gun from the holster at her hip and strategized a plan in her head.
After a deep breath and a silent count to three, she rolled from her cover and leapt to her feet, simultaneously firing off two shots at Montoya’s last position. The first shot missed, but the second struck him in the chest. The particle laser beam seared through his armor and into the flesh beneath, cutting through layers of tissue and muscle effortlessly.
They’d been equipped to take on Kaiden with his old-fashioned Desert Eagle, and she could use that to her advantage.
Bullets cut through the air, peppering the hull of the ship with indentations. Someone had taken down the shields used to prevent projectile and asteroid damage while hacking into the RV’s security mainframe.
Nisrine thrust her palm toward Roberts and thrust him off balance. The gun flew up, ripped from his hands, and then she flung him against the side of the ship hard enough to knock his helmeted head against the metal and leave a deep groove. The next shot from her gun took out his partner.
Another heavily armored marine stepped from around the ship and spoke to someone out of sight. “Get the damned hatch open. I’ll handle her.”
Nisrine thrust again. To her surprise, the armored giant didn’t move. He had the muscular bulk of her commodore and Xander’s height, a big monster of a man with a cruel scar down the side of his face. She raised her gun and fired instead, but he deflected it with a wave of his hand.
“Shit,” she muttered before scrambling toward the side of the ship. Although she’d met other combat psychics like him before, and even trained alongside Gareth a few times, his presence took her by surprise.
Before she could make it far, her feet jerked from under her. As she tumbled through the air, she struggled to maintain hold of her gun. It flew from her fingers and was lost in a snowdrift, leaving behind its shape in the white hill of compressed ice. She hit the ground and rolled to break her fall, then scrambled up to her feet. Snow exploded to her left with the next psychic punch, showering her in a chilly fog. The man had raw strength, but piss-poor aim, and she sought a way to use it against him.
Quicker and lighter, she kept ahead of his attacks while peppering him with her own.
“Ah, sweetheart, you’ve been slinging your powers around for a moment now, haven’t you? It’s time to give it up. I’m fresh and charged.” They held one another in a stalemate, neither advancing nor able to move. Her limbs were paralyzed, as were his, both psychics holding the other immobile with their palms out and eyes narrowed to determined slits.
“Give it up and maybe I won’t draw things out. I can see in that pretty head of yours, pull out your worst fears.”
She shoved out, infuriated by the threat. Until Saskia’s treachery, she’d never gone into another being’s mind with the intent to inflict
intentional pain. The pleasure in his voice sickened her and rather than shake her resolve, it strengthened her willpower to resist him.
Nisrine fought for more than her own safety. She fought for all of the psychics and cyborgs ripped from their homes, torn from their families, stolen in the dead of night. And she fought for Kaiden.
Because he deserved this second chance as much as he deserved justice for the crimes committed against him. Righteous fury provided all of the fuel Nisrine needed. Her opponent staggered back, eyes widening. He screamed and raised both hands to his head as Nisrine ripped through his memories and pressed harsh, mental fingers into his brain. She raked through his thoughts and found his insecurities, his fears, and the things that terrified him.
He feared losing his legs. They’d been lost once in an explosion during the war, replaced with cybernetic limbs. In her opponent’s nightmares, he dreaded a future without them, traveling by wheelchair, discharged from the military and his authorized privilege to kill.
He liked killing. For him, it was a hobby, and taking lives had become as much of a paycheck as the quid deposited into his account for serving the military.
As her head throbbed from psychic overuse, she pushed past the warning signs and created a vision in her mind of her rushing from the snowbank with her sword. He shot at her, but the bullets missed. He pushed with his powers, but she barreled through them. Nisrine slammed through his mental barriers and assaulted him with a reality of her own choosing, gritting her teeth against her own agony. Pins and needles stabbed her brain. He was strong mentally, but she was stronger.
In his mind, Nisrine sliced through synthetic flesh and plasteel. It became his reality, all his eyes could see, and his body cooperated. His legs gave out and he fell forward in the snow.
“How did you—?”
He raised his gun and fired point blank at open space, his mind seeing Nisrine above him, gloating and victorious. In reality, she hadn’t crossed the distance at all. She ripped the gun out of his hands then bashed the stock against his skull. He lay prone in the snow as she searched for their hidden hacker.
She found the hacker around the back of the ship, wedged between the fuel cells and main engine. He’d broken out in a sweat and clutched his datapad to his chest, trembling.
“Don’t kill me. I’m just a lab cybertech. I’m not even military. They hired me to get into this and to deal with some cyborg.”
“Unplug your gear and step away from the ship.”
“Yeah, okay, sure thing.”
His hands shook as he followed her directions. Once he’d unhooked his gear and restored the access panel, Nisrine patted him down for weapons. Finding nothing, she ordered him to restore functions to the ship.
“Get out of here and forget everything you saw. Don’t try and claim your payment.”
He ran away without looking back.
Nisrine fetched her coat with the supplies from the snow then burst onto the ship. “Kaiden?” The air was still, lifeless and void of any emotion or feeling aside from a lingering sensation of pain reverberating over the cool walls. She hurried into the bedroom but found no sign of Kaiden. He should have been in bed. “Dammit where is he?”
“The cockpit,” Jem said, startling Nisrine. “I advised against interference, but he would not listen.”
Her heart slammed into her ribcage and nearly raised into her throat. Without time to waste asking Jem how she’d patched into their RV, she launched herself forward and raced into the cockpit where she found Kaiden sprawled on the floor.
He didn’t move, even as she dropped to her knees and shook him with both hands. She patted his body down for injuries and found none but noticed a trail of blood seeping from his nose. Despite her pleas, Xander’s warning, and his exhaustion, he’d subjected himself to excruciating pain.
Wary of another attack, Nisrine piloted the ship from the surface and took to the sky. Under normal circumstances, she would have stayed to interrogate the survivors, but lingering was too dangerous. Local authorities would be on the way and could deal with the bodies she left behind. Spitefully, she hoped they died alone in the snow.
“Kaiden. Stay with me, okay? I have the medicines you need.”
She felt his pulse, weak and thready. His eyes were half open, a slit of white and hint of green beneath his dark lashes. He didn’t respond, even as she rolled him onto his side and bent his knees to curve his back, grunting from the dead weight.
Nisrine had never delivered an intrathecal injection in all of her life. She decontaminated his skin with a few brisk swipes of a sterilizing wipe, and with Jem’s guidance, she eased the needle into empty space between two vertebrae. All the while, she prayed she didn’t overshoot her estimation and pierce the spinal cord itself before pushing the plunger.
“I don’t think it’s safe to contact Xander. If we’re bugged, we may not be so lucky next time, Jem. How are you here?”
“Kaiden was unable to fend off the hacker alone. He contacted me through a universal relay and patched in a viable connection. I have limited access to ship controls, but the link is fading.”
“Then it isn’t safe for you to remain.”
“That is true. I will withdraw now that your security has been reestablished. The Jemison requires a necessary security upgrade which may result in the loss of pertinent data in my memory banks related to this situation.”
“Thank you, Jem.”
“I have uploaded several helpful videos to your console related to medical care. Good luck, Lieutenant.”
The A.I. disappeared from their ship, and Nisrine was left absolutely alone.
Mentally exhausted by her use of telekinesis and unable to drag Kaiden’s considerable weight through the ship, she settled for the next best thing and brought the comfort of a bed to him. She tucked a pillow beneath his head and draped a blanket over his still body. Only then did she move into the pilot’s seat and program in a destination of her choice. The Viridian Belt would provide ample coverage and the ores in the asteroids made sensors useless.
Protocol demanded she make a detailed debriefing, but she hesitated. How could she possibly report in when the very people from whom she took orders had likely placed them both in peril?
To pass a few hours of downtime before his shift in the communications center, Gareth logged onto Spellbound and met with his online girlfriend. Flidais played a sidhe knight—a fairy in shining golden armor, themed in summer colors. Her radiant, golden-red hair fell down her shoulders, failing to conceal two pointed elfin ears.
They’d never exchanged photographs, but a sense in his gut told him she looked similar IRL. And while they had never met in real life, he had no doubt about her sincerity. Flidais had eased him through some of the most troubling times in his life, when crippling depression and the loss of his brother nearly took their toll.
“Gareth?”
“Hm?” He idly reloaded his firearm with consecrated bullets meant for destroying ghouls and undead monsters. Their original plan had been to tackle a dungeon, but his heart wasn’t in it.
They sat together on a bench in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. The simulated sun touched the horizon, casting the sky into dusky shades of violet, indigo, and coral. A cool, autumnal breeze caressed his face, as refreshing as the real thing.
“Maybe you should log off and have a nap before work,” Flidais said.
“No, no. I’ll be fine,” he lied. Storing the weapon in his inventory, he put his arm around her and drew her in close beside him. Not for the first time, he wished it was real. That he could have the real flesh and blood woman in his arms, not a virtual construct.
“You’re squinting. You always squint when you’ve got a real-life migraine.”
He grumbled, unwilling to admit she was right. “Lots on my mind, I guess. It’s been an off sort of day.”
“Work?”
“Yeah, sort of. Plus my brother is away on business and he’s not the sort to keep in contact.”
“He’s a grown man,” she chided, voice gentle. “I’m sure he’s focused on his new job.”
“I worry about him, that’s all.” After a pause, he ruefully added, “We always worry about each other, since we’re twins, I guess, but this is different. Some bad shit happened to him a while back, and he’s still struggling to get on his feet again.”
“Go give him a call then. I’ll meet you back here tomorrow for the raid.”
“No, I’m sorry, I’m good. Let’s go and—” His display blinked, indicating mail. “Speak of the devil…”
He swiped through a holographic interface and pulled up the message, greeted by what looked like nothing more than multicolored blocks of varying sizes.
Kaiden and Gareth had their own language. They’d developed it as children, writing messages in colors the way others used Morse code. Two years ago, he’d received a series of images in rainbow hues and he’d known without a doubt his brother was alive when the decoded message pleaded for help.
Seeing it again twisted his stomach into a knot.
If this letter has reached you, I’ve probably failed my mission or things have gone sideways, forcing us to sever all communication. If it’s the latter, I’ll pull through and be back to kicking arse sooner or later. If you never hear from me past this, I want you to know every day as your brother has been treasured and loved, you clueless fucknugget. Tell Mum I love her, too.
I need you to stay on your toes and keep your guard up. Listen, Gareth. Something is wrong. There aren’t many people we can trust anymore in United Command, and Bishop needs to know that. I think he and Xander are on the up and up, but you know how to be sure. Do it.
Enclosed, I have submitted a daily summary of our findings. I trust you to know when and to whom to reveal this data. Whoever reads it will be in danger.
Gareth’s hands shook. The letter’s contents didn’t seem real, and he didn’t want to believe his brother had been taken from him again.
Kaiden (The Nova Force Book 2) Page 11