by Jessica Gunn
“This has nothing to do with Trevor and everything to do with you,” Logan said. “Whatever you’ve been involved with for the last few years, it doesn’t matter to me. I just want to make sure you’re safe.”
“I won’t let anything happen to her.” Josh’s words sliced the tension in the room in half. He and Logan exchanged a look that drove me insane.
“For the love of all that is good, I am not a damsel in distress!” And if they thought differently, they could shove it.
Josh turned to me. “Maybe not, but it’s been a long time since you haven’t had powers, Chelsea. And none of that negates the fact that there’s a threat of more attacks. Right now, Valerie and I are the only ones you can trust because we’re the only two whom we know for sure aren’t compromised.”
“And Captain Marks,” I said. “Or he wouldn’t have sent Valerie.” I hadn’t asked it as a question, but Josh’s eyes answered me anyway. There wasn’t a way to know who and where was safe right now. “Fine. Where are we going, then?”
The doctor returned and discharged me a half hour later. Logan helped me all the way to the front entrance of the hospital as I swore under my breath with every step. I must have sprained my ankle in addition to everything else at some point during one of the fights. And my side—my side throbbed as if someone stood next to me, repeatedly beating my ribs with a club.
At the entrance to the hospital, Josh took Logan’s place. “This is where I have to insist we go alone,” he told Logan. “You have no idea what it means that you were there for Chelsea when this happened, and I wish you could come along.”
Logan chuckled harshly. “No, you don’t. But thanks for saying it anyway.” To me, Logan said, “I want to know you’re okay when you get where you’re going.”
“I’ll do my best.” I hugged him, tucking my head into his shoulder. His big arms wrapped around me for many long moments, as if he were afraid I’d evaporate into thin air and disappear. He didn’t let go. “Logan.”
“You scared the shit out of me,” he said into my shoulder. “I kind of hate you for that.”
Tears stung my eyes, but I swallowed them down. “I didn’t mean to.”
“I know.”
“Tell Sarah I’m okay and that I’ll see her as soon as I can.”
Logan nodded and pulled back. “I will. I’m sure the Navy’s still there covering their asses with non-disclosures and silence money.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “More than likely. Watch out for her, okay?”
“Absolutely.”
Josh urged me with a hand on the small of my back. I wiggled away from it. I didn’t know where we stood, but I knew it wasn’t anything near that close to being friendly.
“Love you, Logan,” I said to my best friend. “Thank you. For everything.”
He smirked and waved, emotion heavy in his eyes. “Anytime.”
Josh led me away from the hospital and into the parking lot. We walked in silence. Well, he walked. I hobbled. My breath came heavy with the exertion of biting back pain. I wouldn’t let anyone see me that weak, but the way Josh shadowed my every step told me he saw right through my mask. As per normal. Still, he said nothing.
He was right. Josh had said there wasn’t a point recently in which I hadn’t had powers. Was this what it had been like before? I couldn’t remember. I’d counted on that innate strength for so long, the teleportation powers. The ability to stand up to whatever I had to and to be wherever I was needed within a moment’s notice.
Now I had neither. I couldn’t even feel the water around me, in the air, in my own body.
“There she is,” Josh said, pointing ahead of us. Valerie leaned against a non-descript sedan, a purple and yellow bruise blooming across her temple. She flashed him a hand signal, which he returned.
I looked between them. “Are there doubles of everyone running around or something?”
Valerie’s gaze met mine, enough of an answer without words. Doubles was the only explanation for Trevor attacking Valerie. Wasn’t it?
“Let’s get out of here,” she said, nodding toward the car. I climbed in front with her and Josh slid into the backseat. Valerie drove us down to a deserted alley and teleported us and the car…
…right into the Atlantean outpost in the middle of the Sargasso Sea.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. This was by far the least safe place on the freaking planet right now. We’d just used this site as bait to lure the Atlanteans! “Valerie?”
She put the car in park, turned it off, and got out. Josh followed her, as did I. Except slower because standing up shot pain right up my abdomen. I cursed something awful as I pulled myself from the car.
“This wasn’t the designated place,” Josh demanded. “What’s going on?” He rounded to the driver’s side, a hand creeping towards his back.
He’s armed. Obviously.
I swallowed hard. So far she’d at least seemed like Valerie. How’d the White City even make doubles anyway? How’d they become power-sucking wraiths? Too many questions.
“Look,” Valerie said. “The last place got compromised. I came here, checked it out, and we should be fine for the moment. I hid here for years before anyone figured it out.”
According to Trevor’s own words last year, Valerie’s story was true. But if Trevor had been involved in the attack on Atlas… If they were doubles of themselves…
Valerie’s eyes flashed the same shade of green as a White City teleport and, in an instant, she teleported out of the room. Josh drew his weapon and spun around, waiting for her reentry. Panic crept up my spine and into my lungs. A double! Could this day get any worse?
She returned to the outpost and shoved Josh away from the car. He flew to the other side of the room, crashing against a wall and sliding down it to the floor. The Not-Valerie White City soldier then set her eyes on me. I backed up against the car and waved my hand through the air, searching out water.
None came.
“Oh, sh—”
I ducked as her fist sailed through the air for my face, but I couldn’t block the follow-up blow to my gut. Pain screeched across my vision, narrowing it as I burrowed in on myself, making my body smaller. Giving Not-Valerie a smaller target to hit.
Powerless and injured, there was nothing more I could do.
Heat seared the air around us. A great wave of fire bloomed just behind Not-Valerie, the heat kissing my skin. I ducked back into the car and slammed the door shut in time to miss being engulfed by flames. My body shuttered as the car heated immeasurably. Sweat dripped down my back, my temple. When the fire died down, I peeked out the window.
The White City soldier and Valerie faced off, trading blow for blow, but it was Josh’s shot that ended the fight. He aimed his gun at Not-Valerie and as soon as the bullet pierced her forehead, the façade dropped. A woman with striking blonde hair dropped dead to the ground.
“What the…?” I whispered. My gaze found the new Valerie. Was it actually her?
This new Valerie ducked down and knocked on the car window. “You coming out, girlie? It’s safe now.”
It’s safe now. Implying I couldn’t defend myself. I pursed my lips together. I couldn’t. I’d retreated at the first damn sign of danger.
Easing open the car door, I emerged but stayed put. “How do I know either of you are really you after that?” My gaze darted between Josh and Valerie. “What the hell is going on?”
Valerie held up her pointer finger. Not a call to action, a reminder. I’d broken that very same finger when she’d helped Thompson hijack SeaSat5 three years ago. “The only time I ever let you get the best of me. You know it’s hard to write now, right?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “Okay, fine. What about you?” I turned on Josh.
“Space cadet,” he said, his eyes rounded with the memory. It was when I’d first told him I’d loved him. “That’s all I got.”
I swallowed hard. These two were the only people I could count on. My ex-boyf
riend and Trevor’s friend who, on more than one occasion, had put us both in danger.
Great.
Chapter Seven
CHELSEA
Valerie dragged out a mattress I knew she’d slept on for months before we’d rescued SeaSat5. I figured the Navy had cleared it out sometime before we used the Archive Building as bait for the Atlanteans, but I guessed not.
“Here,” she said. “Lie down. You look like hell.”
“Thanks,” I said slowly, easing my way down onto the mattress. As soon as my ass hit the cushion, my body relaxed completely for what felt like the first time in eons. Valerie was here. Valerie had powers. Whatever happened, she’d protect me.
Valerie. Protect me? Me wanting it? What bizzaro world had we stepped into?
“Are you okay, girlie?” she asked.
My gaze lifted to watch Josh as he moved the car against a wall, out of the way. “I don’t know. I’m hiding out in a place I’d consider a huge target with my ex-boyfriend and someone who tried to get me killed after everything I knew was just flipped onto its head.” My vision swirled. I leaned back to lay down but froze, cringing as my side and ribs flared. “And this stupid wound. Is this what it’s like to heal normally?” Even with my healing powers, it’d still take a bit to heal completely. But after almost six hours, I’d still be better off than I was now. “I need a hospital, Valerie.” And it utterly gutted me to admit that. “You guys shouldn’t have discharged me.”
She frowned. “I know. We’ll get you to a doctor as soon as SeaSat5’s cleared. They’ve been working on it since Atlas was hit.”
Nodding—and accepting my temporary pained state—I closed my eyes. “What happened? Like, what really happened? Josh showed me the video, but with all these doubles and new powers, and the fact that the White City directly attacked us… I don’t know what I believe.”
“Here,” Valerie said as she lay one hand behind my back and the other on my arm. “Sit back.” She helped me lay down, then continued. “I was on SeaSat5. Captain Marks was holding a senior staff meeting, and then all of a sudden the general quarters alarm goes off and communications is shouting about some attack on Pearl and Atlas. Then Trevor’s calling my cell phone.” Her face reddened with anger, her fists clenching, as the story went on. “I should have known something was off. That he’d take the time to call me when everything’s being attacked.”
“Rumor says he did it because he thought you could help teleport people out of there?”
Valerie shrugged and stretched her legs out before her. She ran a finger down the length of the bruise on her temple. “And I would have done just that. Except he decided to attack me instead. Then somehow that double ended up with you guys while I was at TAO.”
I already knew this. The question was why?
“It’s not like I let him do it,” Valerie said, her eyes narrowed.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You look like that’s what you want to say,” she said. “That little old Trevor, powerless, took me out. Come on.”
“I wouldn’t have expected it either,” I told her. “I would have thought he was handing me the gun.”
She worried her lower lip and looked away. “I just want whatever this is to end.” Her voice broke on the last word, a single tear spilling out.
My heart collapsed in on itself, tearing in two. I may have loved Trevor, but she’d loved him as a best friend her entire life. If it’d been Logan instead, Valerie’s and my situations reversed, I wouldn’t want to believe it either. I’d refuse. I’d not have seen the gun coming or the resulting aftermath. I wouldn’t have been able to hold it together as she had.
I sat up and wrapped my arms around Valerie. She didn’t return the embrace, didn’t so much as flinch. “He’s not dead.”
She nodded slowly. “I know he’s not. He’s too damn stubborn for that. But that wasn’t a double that hit me, Chelsea. I can’t explain how I know—just a gut feeling. It was him.”
“So he’s working with the White City,” I whispered. The words were hard to speak. “I don’t believe it.”
“I don’t either,” she said.
“And yet Atlas is incapacitated,” Josh said, pulling up a chair next to us. I let go of Valerie and leaned back again. “And SeaSat5 remains in danger.”
“For now,” I said. “But I doubt we need to worry about SeaSat5. That station wasn’t built for Link Piece travel and that’s what the White City was after. Why, I have no idea. They’re probably better at it than the rest of us and SeaSat5 already went to Atlantis. It’s not a Link Piece anymore. It’s useless.”
Valerie let out a slow breath, a sound escaping behind it. But she pursed her lips and didn’t speak.
“Any chance General Allen’s behind this?” I asked. Josh flinched at my question. “Just from what you might have heard before you guys got out, I mean.”
“No,” he said firmly. “I didn’t hear anything, but I wouldn’t doubt he’s involved.”
Valerie looked up at Josh. They shared some sort of quick, silent conversation. But actually silent, not like the verbally silent, mentally connected conversations Trevor and I used to have when we’d been telepathic.
“What?” I asked when neither of them gave up what I’d clearly seen passed between them.
“You don’t think they’re after the soldiers, do you?” Josh asked Valerie.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s possible.”
“Wait a second,” I said. “Soldiers as in Atlantean, as in Weyland and me?”
“And Charlie,” Valerie confirmed, then to Josh, said, “But why attack Atlas then?”
“Because of the technology. It’s basically got the brain of a super soldier for all the work Trevor did by building that 3D Waterstar map.” Like what the Atlas Room had looked like back on Atlantis.
Oh, this was going to be messy.
A cellphone chirped out notes, pausing our conversation. Valerie picked hers up. “Hey, Charlie.” A pause. “Perfect, thank you.” She hung up and looked to Josh and me. “That’s the all-clear. Come on, girlie. Let’s get you to the Infirmary.”
Chaos coated the Bridge in a thick tension that hung in the air like summer in New England. Humid, slimy, and unforgiving. Bridge officers darted between stations. Commander Devin weaved between his crew, uttering orders over the din to those he passed by. Captain Marks stood at the command center in the middle of the room, one fist clenched under his chin, the other arm wrapped around his middle. Darkness swam across his features and the corners of his mouth folded down upon seeing me.
Trevor’s dead. It had to be true. And yet, the part of me that constantly sought him out, the part that found him halfway across the world and beneath a mile of ocean, still felt him. Still knew that all these words about Trevor dying weren’t true. No matter what the Captain thought.
Valerie and I approached the command center with Josh, but he stopped short to salute the Captain.
“At ease, Sergeant,” said Captain Marks, his gaze leaving Josh and looking around the room at large. “That’s not necessary right now.”
“What’s the status of TAO and Pearl?” I asked him, stepping out of Valerie’s loose hold. She’d had her arm around me in support I needed but didn’t want. My fingers found purchase on the railing surrounding the command center and I leaned against it. “How many casualties?”
His frown deepened, highlighting a deep sadness in his eyes. “One hundred and three between the facility at Pearl and Atlas.” There was an emptiness at the end of his sentence, like he wanted to say “and Trevor” but didn’t.
He’s not dead, I wanted to scream. The words burned in my throat, rearing to come out. I swallowed them down.
“Damn,” Valerie cursed, fists balled at her sides. She shoved them behind her back, as if she could hide the anger we all had coursing through us.
I’d be angry if I wasn’t so exhausted. I hadn’t realized how much stamina and healing my powers had given me over
the years. It’d been too long since I’d gotten them—forever, even, for the extra strength and healing I’d had my entire life. My head spun and I tightened my grip on the railing. “What now?”
“Now we get you to the Infirmary.” Her hands found my waist once more and she pulled me off the railing. “No sense letting you collapse here.”
Captain Marks reached for his radio. “I’ll send for Weyland. He’s still briefing TAO—”
I closed my eyes against a wave of dizziness and forced a deep breath into my lungs. “I’m fine,” I snapped. “I don’t need to be healed or coddled. I just want to help where I’m needed right now, to stop anything else from happening that might.”
“You need to rest,” said Josh.
My eyes snapped to his. “Don’t tell me what to do.” I’d been “resting” for hours now. I was done sitting still. But even as the words passed my lips, my vision blurred. My legs suddenly weighed a hundred pounds each, as if they couldn’t possibly hold me up any longer. My head pounded in rhythm with my wrist and ribs.
I’d been hurt. Badly. Maybe it was time I accepted that.
“Dr. Gordon wants to see you,” Captain Marks said, offering a hand. “I’ll escort you.” That was about the closest thing to an order as he was allowed to give me.
“Okay,” I relented, tears pricking my eyes. Damn watery betrayal. I didn’t want to cry anymore. I didn’t want to worry anymore. Was SeaSat5 next? Did we have our cloak up?
We stepped away from the command center and were almost to the Lift elevator down the hall when Captain Marks stopped and turned to me. His eyes, rounded, found mine. “How are you really doing, Chelsea?”
I blinked back tears—a few escaped regardless—and swallowed down the shakiness of my limbs. “I saw Pearl get hit. Then Atlas. I watched the security feed of Trevor attacking Valerie. I almost died in Logan’s backyard.” I went to breathe, but a hiccup followed by a string of sobs came out instead. I covered my mouth with a hand and reached out for the closest wall with the other, finally letting the tears run free. “He didn’t do this. He’s not at fault. And he’s not dead, Captain. Trevor wouldn’t do this.”