Rebirth (Cross Book 1)

by Hildred Billings

  They forewent watching anything once Danielle realized how late it was. Even though the world was possibly ending sometime soon, her first thought was that she had to head into work early the next day. Might as well get ready for bed. She didn’t even care if Devon stayed with her that night. They were well past the point of awkward in that department.

  “You know what’s funny?” Danielle called out from the bathroom, her mouth full of toothpaste. “I phoned my dentist the other day to schedule an appointment for a cleaning, like I assumed there would be a planet by the end of the month. Does this mean I’m an optimist?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  Danielle spat out the last of her toothpaste and patted her mouth with a hand towel. “What’s wrong with you? You’re standing there in that spot looking like the loneliest asshole in the world.”

  “I’m fine, really.” Devon waited for her to come out of the bathroom and change her shirt. He didn’t look away. Why? She was clearly comfortable changing in front of him. “You going to sleep now? Isn’t it early?” He did not expect her to already be in bed, claiming the left side and leaving the right undisturbed.

  Danielle finished unwrapping her blankets and contemplated crawling into them. “I’m tired. Gotta get up at six.”

  “Oh.”

  She sat on the edge of her bed. “You staying here or going home?”

  “Staying here, I guess.”

  Danielle pulled her blankets around her waist. “Getting into bed with me, huh?”

  Devon’s mouth went dry. “I could do that.”

  “Then get in here so I can turn off the light.”

  He knew damn well that Danielle did not invite him to anything besides sleeping in the same bed, but that idea alone made going to bed so early seem like the best plan ever.

  Danielle turned off her light. “Good night,” she said.

  After a few moments, she placed her hand on his elbow, pulling him toward her with the hopes of an embrace to follow. He complied, and within moments they dozed off with Devon’s nose buried in Danielle’s shoulder.

  He thought he would want more, but the second his arms went around her, all he could think about was the other woman, somewhere in the country, with a swollen ankle and a hardened heart. There was no reason to think of Alicia at that time, but Devon’s stared at the darkness over Danielle’s body and imagined it was his ex-girlfriend in his arms instead. It went against everything his old self stood for – why would he think of her when the love of his first life slumbered in his arms?

  But she wasn’t slumbering. Danielle gave in to her temptation and pushed Devon away long enough to thrust herself upon him, vowing it was the last time.

  It wouldn’t be.

  ***

  Miranda caught the elevator door before it closed.

  “Hi, Captain Cuntacular,” Ben said. He was the only one in the elevator. “Get any this weekend?”

  Miranda rolled her eyes. The only reason she didn’t make his life hell was because they went back that far. Besides, Miranda wasn’t in the mood to yell at people so early in the morning. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no.”

  “Damnit, does this mean you’re going to be a bitch this week?”

  “Yes.”

  Ben fixed his hair in the elevator mirror. “Even with that bling on your left hand?”

  Perched on her finger was the blue ring she coddled. “What about it?”

  “Bling bling on the left ring thing? Puh-lease. Since when were you dating anyone?”

  “You’ve got it wrong. It only fits this finger.”

  “Then why haven’t I seen it before? You know I love stalking your fashion.”

  “It’s new. For me.”

  Ben stifled a laugh as the elevator chimed open. Miranda bounded out, her briefcase scraping his leg. “Don’t be in too much of a hurry to get to work,” he chided, falling into step behind her.

  “Excuse me for being excited about the elevator not getting stuck again.”

  “Ha! You liked it because you got to skeeze on Cromwell some more.”

  If only that day was so simple! “You sure know me.” She stepped into their department. Although half the staff were not in yet, Shelley still sat at her desk as if she never left it.

  “Morning, Captain.” She pulled out a stack of folders to hand to Miranda as she walked by, although her eyes never left her computer monitor. “These are from the boys in Washington. D-day, as they sometimes say.”

  Miranda took the files and swung open her office door. “Thanks, Shelley.” The door closed behind her.

  She flung the folders onto her desk and slouched into her chair. She considered getting coffee, but was already wired from a strong cup she brewed in her house an hour earlier.

  “I could totally use a smoke break already.” Miranda pulled the folders toward her. She opened the first one and realized they were the colonel’s results from the inspection – the “boys in Washington” did not dally on these things.

  She flipped through them, unimpressed, until she got to the second to last one. The moment she saw the name, she nearly dropped the other folders. The Third Piece burned hot on her other hand.

  ***

  “Hello, Monday.”

  Danielle stopped typing long enough to catch Troy throwing his things beneath his desk. “Rough night?”

  “Couldn’t sleep,” he mumbled. “My mind is a little busy with the world ending all 2012 style.”

  “Well, don’t be. My sanity is kept by watching everyone else lead a normal life while I cry at night.” Sometimes in Devon’s arms. Like the night before, after she had the dumb idea to sleep with him again. When would she learn that it wasn’t good for her emotional well-being?

  “Good times.”

  Danielle returned to work, her mind focused on getting things done so she would have ample time to work out in the gym that afternoon.

  Over the course of an hour and a half, names were numbly called out over the intercom. Danielle ignored them, including a nameless colleague who exited the office in tears because she would soon face discharge. While her other coworkers took time to question the distraught young woman, Danielle kept her eyes on her computer monitor and her fingers poised over the keyboard.

  “Lieutenant Cromwell, report to the captain’s office.”

  Sighing, Danielle backed away from her desk and turned off her phone. Walking down the aisle toward Miranda’s door felt like trudging back to the principal’s office.

  “You can go in.” Shelley continued typing up a memo.

  Although she followed all proper protocol, Danielle still worried she would see an angry woman on the other side of the door. But Miranda sat at her desk, legs crossed. “Have a seat, Lieutenant.” Always formalities when it was something serious.

  Danielle noticed the folder with her name on it right away. “Yes?”

  Miranda pushed more papers to the side of her desk. “I assume you know why I called you in here?”

  Danielle’s eyes never left the green folder lying before her captain. “Is this about the review?”

  “Yes. Your results are back. Care to hear how you fared?”

  “Of course.” Danielle might be the next one to run out and cry.

  “Well,” Miranda leaned back in her chair, hands folded across her lap, “there’s good news, and there’s bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”

  “The good news?”

  The corners of Miranda’s mouth twitched in amusement. Danielle was doing her damnedest to not squirm in her seat. “The good news is that you’re not even being transferred, let alone discharged. The review came back saying that they like you where you are. Your productivity is even in the top twenty-percent.”

  Danielle frowned. “Then what’s the bad news?”

  “They suggest you get further medical counseling.”

  “What?”

  “A woman of any rank who has just had a breast cancer scares is going to make them nerv
ous, whether further tests come back negative or not. Also, they suggest counseling, but I think that’s bullshit.”

  By then Danielle had her face in her hand, the mere thought of sitting on a military-issued counselor’s couch about as appealing as sticking nails up her nose. “I don’t have time for this shit right now. You have no idea.”

  Her captain’s eyes remained focused on her. “I have quite a good idea.”

  The tension between them culminated once Danielle grasped what Miranda was doing. A chill went down her spine.

  “Anyway,” Miranda gathered the files together, “I need you to sign off here that you’ve been made aware of the current situation.” She presented Danielle with a single page and a blank line. “Full name, of course.”

  Miranda passed the pen from her right hand to her left hand. Danielle leaned in to take the pen into her hand. Her fingers brushed against the blue ring.

  Pain. Pain. Danielle crumpled on the desk, her breath escaping her mouth as Miranda looked nonchalantly on. Danielle snapped her hand back and grabbed her left wrist, the tattoo burning on her skin.

  “Are you all right, Cromwell?” There was almost humor in Miranda’s voice.

  Danielle’s mind blanked between the real world and some distant memory pulsating at the back of her brain. All that came out of her mouth was a whimper.

  “Cramp!” she announced once her body was hers to control again. “Hand cramp! Probably carpal tunnel from typing all day!”

  “Ah, yes, that would be a danger of the job.”

  “I’m fine, really.”

  “You are dismissed.” Miranda closed the green folder with her left hand, allowing the ring to twinkle in front of Danielle.

  On her way back to her desk, amidst the sounds of typing, telephones, and murmured voices, all Danielle could see was that ring. That ring.

  “What’s wrong?” Troy asked when she returned. “Are you in trouble?”

  Danielle detoured to his desk. “She has it.”

  “Has what?”

  She shook her head, as if under a hypnotic spell swerving between the present and the past like the pendulum in Marlow’s office. “The Third Piece. Miranda has it.”

  THIRTY-NINE

  Devon was not prepared to have his phone ring and to hear a near hysterical Danielle rattle off something about the fabled Third Piece. She asked him to meet her and her friend at a nearby restaurant for dinner. That was the only thing Devon understood.

  Clyde went with him. Danielle already sat on one side of their table, biting her thumb nail while Troy dumped sugar into his coffee.

  “What’s going on?” Devon asked. “You said something about the Third Piece?”

  Her words rattled off so quickly that Devon only caught some of it – something about her boss, a ring, and the Third Piece. It took him a few seconds to register what she implied.

  “Really?” Devon said. “Are you sure? How did you not notice this before?”

  Danielle snorted. “I’ve never seen her wear that piece of costume jewelry before. It was like she was flaunting it!” Her face puffed as she swallowed another statement.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She shuddered. “Not only does my boss have the Third Piece, but I think she’s also working for you know who.”

  “Danielle,” Troy said, “there’s just no way...”

  “I don’t care! She’s personally involved somehow! You didn’t see the way she stared at me while my tattoo reacted to that thing like it was made from radioactive fire! Just stared! No concern or anything. Isn’t that a bit suspicious?”

  “I don’t think Hottie has concern for anything but her nails, honestly,” Troy said.

  Danielle threw down her drink straw. “We need to get that ring! If Dunsman gets it... and has the Relics... well, that’s how planets die.”

  “What do you propose we do, then?” Troy asked.

  Devon interjected before Danielle could retaliate. “We should tell Marlow. This is serious. We should go see him.”

  “Yeah. Sure. Hopefully we’re not dead by then.”

  “Or Hottie, for that matter.” Troy cast his friend a glare. “Just assume for a minute that she’s not working for the enemy. If they catch wind that she has this... thing... then she’s going to be made a target. She doesn’t deserve that.”

  “We need to get that ring,” Devon reiterated. “No matter what.”

  “Oh, of course.” Danielle crossed her arms on the table and shoved her head down. “I’ll go ask her for it tomorrow. Totally.”

  “Just steal it from her.”

  The other three lifted their heads as Clyde spoke. “Excuse me, what?”

  “Just steal it from her,” he repeated.

  “Steal it? How? By busting into her house and swiping it from her belongings?”

  “Sure.”

  “You’re an idiot,” Devon mumbled. “But... that may be our only option.”

  “Are you serious? How are we going to do that?” Danielle asked.

  “Reconnaissance?” Clyde suggested. “You guys are military. You know all about that.”

  Danielle would not comment on that. “You mean break into her house and steal it?”

  “That’s what you people are basically trained to do, right?”

  “No.”

  “Then what the hell do you do?”

  “Type on a computer, sugar tits.” Troy slammed his face into his hand. “Do you even hear yourself? Break into our commander’s house?”

  “But if she is working for Dunsman...” Danielle said, “He would know about it, right?”

  “It’s a trap. It has to be.”

  “You would need the plan of the century,” Troy interjected. “If her wearing that ring today was like inviting you to a bull fight, then she knows you’re coming. You have to get in and get out when she’s not expecting it.”

  “I know I’m lean, boys, but I’m not exactly invisible.”

  Clyde snapped up. “You could... no... wait... tomorrow, because today is too soon to get things together...”

  The other three stared at him, waiting for more.

  “Devon, call Serge and ask about that van his store uses. Do you know if they still have headsets you can check out at the service desk back on campus?”

  “...What?”

  Clyde could not elaborate, for the waitress returned with demands for everyone to give her their orders. Just as well, for Clyde was still in deep thought, pondering the best plan of action to break into Captain Hotchner’s house to steal a piece of jewelry.

  It scared the rest of them shitless.

  ***

  “Sweet heaven almighty, you’d think this place used to be a torture den.” Clyde fumbled around the darkened storage facility behind the campus’s main computer laboratory. He tripped on another set of wires.

  “For as often as I was trapped in here untangling shit for minimum wage, it pretty much was.” Devon was the one at home in the den, if only because he spent the past three years working as a part-time employee. “Shit’s not labeled – check that corner over there.”

  Clyde had wanted to go straight to campus after dinner and break into the storage room. Devon suggested they sleep on the idea and use a key he could still access. Somewhere in the deep recesses of the storage room was a pair of hands-free radios a club bought to stage a murder mystery.

  “I hope this plan works.” Devon was trapped amid wires and forgotten copy machines. “I’d rather not send Danielle into certain death at the hands of her boss.”

  “Ah, come on, man. What are friends for?”

  Devon kicked a heavy box and bent down to inspect it. “Got ‘em.” He produced a pair of headphones and microphones looking like they belonged in a low-budget movie. “You’d think they’d store these things better.”

  “Doesn’t matter to you anymore. You’re gone.”

  “We’ll all be gone if we don’t grab that ring.”

  “Woo! Thanks for the reminder!” />
  With the box now in his arms, Devon turned to face his companion. “Make sure you call Serge so we can get that van. We’re going to be the best creepers on that block tonight.”

  ***

  “Are you sure about this?”

  Miranda stood outside her front door after work, smoking a cigarette as she parlayed information to Syrfila over the phone. “Of course I am. Catch them in the act, don’t you think? It’ll make you look better.”

  A thoughtful pause. “If you insist. I’ll meet you around the corner in about fifteen minutes. I hope you’re not full of it.”

  They hung up. Miranda finished her cigarette before going back inside to retrieve her purse. Five minutes later, she left her door unlocked. She figured about two cups of tea at the corner café would be all it took for the right amount of time to pass – and to rehearse what she would say to Syrfila once the criminal realized she had been betrayed.

  FORTY

  The sky was covered in a thin layer of dark clouds concealing the movements of the quiet street below. This was to Clyde and Devon’s advantage, as their borrowed white van slid past the rows of townhouses. Devon continued to mess with the wires in his lap while glancing at the blackened house outside Clyde’s window.

  “This the place?”

  Devon consulted the text from Danielle once more. “Looks like nobody’s home.”

  “That’s good, right?”

  “Very.”

  The rest of their crew arrived. The sliding door opened to admit Troy and Danielle, both wearing all black.

  “We ready?” Danielle propped her head between the two front seats.

  “This is yours.” Devon handed her a headset as he opened his laptop. “I’m wearing the other one. It’ll let us know if anything goes wrong.”

  “Dear God, this is like the cheapest reconnaissance ever.” Danielle plugged the earpiece into her head. “And I don’t know why I have to go in and do this.”

  “You’re good at it,” was all Devon said. He would know, right?