Rebirth (Cross Book 1)

by Hildred Billings

  “Yes, of course.” The major shifted her gaze between the two members of another military branch. “Pardon the intrusion. Lieutenant, please have a seat and we can begin. I assure you that this is nothing for you to worry about.”

  Danielle hesitated due to the severe tension hanging in the air like a firm vice. Maybe she had not walked in on something sexual, but something sinister. Hazing. Bullying. Not unusual even between women. Sometimes being a woman was worse in that regard. So much to prove to the good ol’ boys.

  But Miranda showed no signs of embarrassment or weakness. Whenever she glanced in Major Kobayashi’s direction, all that reverberated in her eyes was untested contempt. The only other time Danielle ever saw such animosity in Miranda’s eyes was when an official informed her that one of her underlings leaked classified information. Surely, this wasn’t happening again… let alone with Danielle in the center of such slander!

  “Let me be blunt with you, Lieutenant,” the major continued, her lackadaisical attitude unnerving the others in the room. “I’ve had the misfortune of having two junior officers be diagnosed with mental health issues similar to those in your files. Was quite the surprise when that popped up after their physicals.” She shared a glance with Miranda, who continued to stew behind her desk. “Since your captain and I are old friends, I was able to discover that you overcame your own afflictions from childhood. Congratulations, by the way.”

  What the fuck? Danielle glared at Miranda. Why was she sharing that with people? It was supposed to only stay between them! “Thank you.” What else could she say?

  “I was hoping you’d be willing to drop by the marina when our schedules sync. I’m sure my junior officers would be happy to hear from someone who has been through what they’re going through now. Poor dears are mortified that this is going to mean the end of their military careers, but perhaps if they talk to someone who is still going strong…”

  Danielle wanted to laugh. Here she thought she was about to be reprimanded, maybe about leaking classified information to someone in the Marines, and instead she was asked to become a motivational speaker for others with her “issues” in the military. All she had done was grow up with weird dreams and the occasional blackout that scared her grandmother enough to send her to a therapist.

  “I’m flattered, really.” Danielle attempted to suppress laughter forming in her gut. “I have a hard time believing that somebody like me is the only one you can find, though. With all due respect, of course.”

  The major pushed her thin black hair behind her ears as she looked over Danielle’s physique. “As it so happens, Lieutenant, you are exactly what I need.”

  If the way this woman handled the domineering captain beside them was any indication, then Danielle would have to choose her words and actions before something foul befell her.

  Something that made even Captain Hotchner flustered behind closed doors.

  Same captain never once took her eyes off the major throughout this conversation, and it was not in an adoring way. Indeed, Miranda would have loved for the major to make a convenient enough slip to get her ass reported to the higher-up brass.

  “While you are younger and a lower rank than the rest of us in this room,” the major said, “that just means you can spare a day here and there to speak with my junior officers. Besides, they would much rather hear reassurances coming from you than their commanders and trainers. They’re nervous, which is understandable.”

  “My case was hardly going to get my discharged, since the military already knew about it when I enlisted.”

  “That may be true, Lieutenant, but you’re still qualified to do this task for me. I’m surprised you’re not jumping at the gun to miss a little work. Not to mention a nice break from your hardworking captain.” The face that the major sent Miranda made stomachs churn. Danielle did not dare see what Miranda shot back in return, and for good reason – she meant business.

  “I will be more than willing to think about it, ma’am. Again, I’m very flattered that you’ve considered me for this task.” Any other time or day, Danielle would have expected a warm glance from Miranda at these words, but the captain was too busy staring down the Marine with almost no regard for what anybody but the woman in white said. In a bitter twist of irony, the major only seemed to have eyes for Danielle, adding extra impetus to escape.

  Miranda slammed her hand upon her desk with a crack that caused even the major to give her attention. “I think that will be enough, Major.” She gritted through sharp teeth. “Cromwell, you’re dismissed. Please return to your work.”

  Danielle was more than eager to leave the room, but before doing so she was compelled to bow her head in Major Kobayashi’s direction while retreating from the room. Shelley gave her a WTF glance on her way by. She wasn’t the only one salivating for information, either. Troy waited by their cubicles with a face that wanted his friend to spill something. Anything. Now.

  “What happened in there?”

  Danielle shook her head. “That woman is weird. Are you logged into the security check on your computer?”

  Troy hopped back into his chair and woke his computer up. “I don’t have the main program open, if that’s what you mean. Why? Want me to check someone out for you?”

  “I want details about Major Kobayashi from the Marines. She works at the M-Town marina.” It would be less suspicious if Troy was pinged looking her up. It wasn’t unusual for grunts behind computers to run random security checks on personnel, including those ranked above them and in other branches. Sometimes an order came to look someone up. Other times it was necessary for filling in unanswered blanks in the files they were expected to finish.

  “Is that who’s in there with Hottie right now? What did they want with you?”

  “God only knows. Just do it, please.”

  Troy regarded his friend with indignation for one more moment before turning his attention to his computer and typing the provided information into his program. “Kobayashi, huh? There’s only one Kobayashi registered in the Marines around here, so I’m guessing this must be the one you’re talking about.”

  “What does it say?”

  “Her first name is Sara. Is says she was born on a Japanese base and is half-American like Hottie. No wonder they’re friends, huh? Is that why they wanted to talk to you?”

  “Never came up, actually.”

  Troy was distracted by something else. “This says… no way. No fucking way.”

  “What?”

  “Shit, it says she’s almost fifty years old!”

  Danielle almost called him out on his shit. Fifty? Yeah, right. No way in hell was a woman who looked as young as that almost fifty. The major barely looked older than Miranda, who was a vibrant thirty-five and often lamented that she was starting to get gray hairs. Danielle assumed that such a young-looking woman with such a high status in the military was because of prowess, not age. Or perhaps it was a little of both.

  “Thanks for looking that up for me.” Danielle turned away. “I’ll be right back. Going to get some coffee before getting back to work.”

  The break room was a welcomed reprieve. As much as Danielle knew she should follow her captain’s direct orders to get back to work, her need to be alone was greater than her need to obey. She caught the last occupant of the break room leaving the moment she entered. Nobody else dared to bother her as she closed the door and enjoyed her two-minute breather.

  As the coffee pot hummed to life, she pressed her forehead against the counter and reflected on the shit that occurred in the past week. Between finding out that she was the re-re-re-reincarnation of some failure of a mercenary from a destroyed planet she had never heard of until a while ago, and dealing with the shit at her usual job? Danielle was due a vacation.

  Someone entered the break room.

  “Cromwell,” Miranda snapped behind her. “Are you okay?”

  Danielle lifted her head with a start. “Huh?”

  Miranda flitted about the ro
om, occasionally giving Danielle a cold, hard stare that was more than concern on the surface. “Did she do anything to you? Tried to get into your head?”

  “No…” Danielle flinched. “What’s going on?”

  “Don’t let her touch you, ever.” Miranda stopped two feet in front of Danielle. Behind them, the coffee pot beeped. “Don’t go near her. Don’t talk to her. And don’t be alone with her.”

  “Miranda, I…” Usually, Danielle forewent calling her captain by her first name, even though almost everyone did when they bumped into her out of uniform. Yet in this instance it was too cold to call her anything but Miranda. “What’s going on? Who was that woman?”

  “She’s dangerous, is who she is. Shit, I’m so stupid.”

  The captain launched out of the room. At first, Danielle was going to let her go… until she realized she still had more questions than answers.

  So she followed. And nearly bumped into Miranda outside of the break room.

  Major Kobayashi sat on Shelley’s desk, her white uniform the brightest thing in the room as the secretary attempted to ignore the major’s blatant advances. Poor Shelley! She was not interested in women, and here was a commanding officer sitting on her desk, making unwanted advances while everyone else tried not to notice, lest they be subpoenaed for Major Sara Kobayashi’s discharge hearing.

  At that moment, Syrfila looked up and saw both captain and lieutenant. Miranda gave her a glare larger than death. Casual laughter tittered through the room as Syrfila Tograten, a woman unafraid to get caught by anyone, hopped off the desk and showed herself out of the office.

  While Danielle still could not place where she had seen that woman before, she knew something that Miranda had also known for years – to not trifle with a woman on the run who had nothing but her life to lose.

  TWELVE

  Danielle put her phone down. Somehow, she had expected a message from Devon to await her the moment she got off work. No such thing.

  She was out for dinner with Troy, in a busy café with plenty of decaf and light dinners to get them through the evening. The ambiance suggested a throwback to the better times of the old, privileged wealth. Upholstered chairs. Cream-colored walls. Soft music from another time.

  “You never told me what Hottie wanted with you today,” Troy said. “Is it classified? Ooooh, bet it’s classified. Sexy.”

  Danielle sighed, pursed lips trembling while eyes wandered back to Troy’s face. For the longest time, she had been content to stare at the butterfly designs stenciled on the old windows. “I honestly don’t know what to say about it.”

  Troy leaned back in his chair. Danielle tapped her finger against her mouth. She still did not appreciate the meeting with the strange Marine major who was more inappropriate than helpful. Yet why was Miranda so adamant that Danielle stay away from her?

  She huffed in her seat. “Hotchner is paying more attention to me. More than usual.”

  At this bit of gossip, Troy perked up his ears. “It’s obvious that she wants you. Honestly, the only thing I can see stopping you is the whole work and boss thing, because for fuck’s sake, you’re always pissing and moaning about not having dates, and she’s more or less your type. Unless she’s not your kind of dominant.”

  “You had that thought too, huh?”

  “What? That she’s a pitcher? I’d lose fifty bucks otherwise.”

  Troy went back to his dinner while Danielle contemplated her feelings toward Miranda. If they ever hooked up, and if it went down in heretical flames, Danielle would have to request a transfer, and she did not know if she could handle going somewhere else that may not be as accommodating to her identity. “It’s not like I don’t know how to release control. Why are we even going on about me? You’re as single as I am.”

  “Yes, but at least I get dates. You sit around your apartment on weekends in your pajamas watching romantic comedies that you don’t want people knowing you enjoy.”

  “It’s not my fault Meg Ryan is hot.”

  A server took away their empty dishes. Danielle’s smile widened as she thought about the warm light of the room, the stuttered conversations of the other people, couples and old friends alike, and the aroma of coffee and herbal tea coming through her nostrils like a wafting dream.

  Her smile disappeared. For a moment, she had forgotten everything about the past week. Now it slapped her in the cerebrum and caused a confused tear to drip from her eye.

  “What’s up?” Troy asked.

  What’s wrong…

  Danielle stifled a guffaw. Oh, the things she could share! Where would she begin? With her week’s trip to another dimension? With dinner with an old man who claimed to be a sorcerer from another planet? Or with being tasked to find two crucial items she wasn’t even sure existed… all so she could save Earth. Maybe. Probably not. Her defeatist nature was already choking her again.

  “It’s that kid, right?” Troy said. “The one that came by your place! Holy shit.”

  “What are you going on about?”

  “You’re not fucking him, are you? Good God, never took you for a cradle robber again, let alone for a guy.”

  Danielle pressed her fingers against her temples. “No, Troy, there is nothing going on with that ‘kid.’ I’m most definitely not sleeping with him, either. And no I am not pregnant.”

  “That’s only a small relief.” Troy glanced out the window next to their table. “But how the hell do you know him, anyway? I never heard you mention him before last Sunday, and you two seemed rather… close, I guess? Don’t keep secrets from me, young lady.”

  Danielle rearranged her utensils on her now empty plate and regarded her friend with a paling complexion. “He’s a… friend. I guess you may say a partner in an activity we’re doing.”

  “That doesn’t sound sexual at all. Nope.”

  “It’s not sexual!” Danielle held up her hands to back up her statement. The mere thought of sleeping with Devon, let alone embracing him affectionately… weird. Definitely weird.

  “I told you to not keep secrets. Damnit, you’re more boxed up than a Christmas present.”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Believe what?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “The truth.”

  “The truth about what?”

  “No, you would think I’m insane.” Was she really contemplating telling him the truth? About everything? The mercenaries? The Process? The Relics? Her complicated visions from her past lives? “I don’t want you thinking that about me.” It reminded her too much of her childhood as the class psycho because she went to therapy and had bad nightmares.

  “You already make me think you’re insane about everything else. What would be different about this?”

  Danielle made sure her wallet was still in her front pocket. “If I tell you, you must promise me… to not run away, to not laugh, and for God’s sake don’t report me to Hottie on grounds of being a nutjob. I can’t even believe I’m thinking about telling you this shit.”

  Troy’s full attention was back on her again. “Holy shit. This is gonna be good, ain’t it?”

  Perhaps telling him would be the easy part. After that, it was up to him to decide whether Danielle needed to be reported. Maybe it was best for her, anyway. For all she still knew, this was another bad dream from her childhood.

  ***

  A gray mist clouded her view of the bay as Miranda lit her fourth cigarette that day. From her perch alongside the windowsill, she drifted in and out of a focus. She did not bother to open the window this time.

  The freight elevator jarred with movement. The sound catapulted Miranda’s nerves into another plane of reality as she acknowledged who returned home. Her tiny – but growing – rations of tobacco were not helping.

  The lady of the loft was surprised to find Miranda sitting in the windowsill. “Look what the storm whipped up. I didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”

  Miranda pulled her cigarette out of her mouth an
d sent a perturbed glance in Syrfila’s direction. “You’re home late.”

  “Is it that late?” Syrfila stepped into her loft and removed her headcover and jacket. “Sorry, babe, I had a meeting run really late, then I grabbed something for dinner. You know how it is. We commanders, right?”

  “Sure.” Miranda shivered in her blue jeans and thin green jacket. She rushed home after work, stopping long enough to change out of her uniform, grab something to eat, and charge over to Syrfila’s converted loft in the warehouse district. She had a spare key if necessary. Too bad she was forced to hang around while waiting for her “friend” to get her ass home.

  Syrfila wandered to the other side of her spacious loft, where her large bed and wardrobe awaited her. She stripped off the top and unhooked the fasteners on her bra before casting them into a hamper and yanking a T-shirt from the depths of her wardrobe. While Miranda continued to stare out the window, cigarette shrinking in hand, Syrfila finished changing into her loungewear. “What are you doing here? Not that I don’t enjoy your nightly visits, darling, but I’m rather surprised. Don’t you have work tomorrow? Now I know you don’t wanna get fucked up if that’s the case.”

  Miranda cast another scathing look toward Syrfila. “What the hell did you think you were doing in my office today?” Sara Kobayashi her fucking ass. That was the name Syrfila went by on Earth, and the only reason she adopted a Japanese name was because that’s where she first met Miranda and figured she blended in well enough with the local population. Not that Miranda ever called her anything but Fuckface McGee beneath her breath. How long had it been since Syrfila walked into her life and fucked up her fate? Almost twenty years? Jesus. Twenty years way too long.

  Syrfila had her own stash of cigarettes to enjoy. After one long drag, she was compelled to say, “We went over this earlier.”