She crested the top of the stairs then and stayed close to the wall. Holding position for a moment, she tried to count what doorways she could see. They were all open, or didn’t have doors in the first place. She wasn’t sure if that was good for her or not, but she had to keep moving forward, either way.
Each room would need to be checked before she could move on, but she was sure she’d heard the footsteps coming up here so he had to be in one of them.
Moving along the wall, she reached the first door and peeked in fast. There were no obvious signs of the Arkana, so she swung around and inside. Her gun was up, ready to fire at anything hostile, but the room was empty, other than her plus a pair of couches on one wall and a table with many chairs. There wasn’t anything by way of decor and if she’d had more time, she would have speculated on what sort of business transpired in this room.
However, now was not the time for speculation.
Andy repeated the process in the next room and then the one after that. The furniture and decor didn’t seem to change a whole lot, at least in that it all remained sparse. Some rooms didn’t have couches and instead had shelves and cabinets, but that was about all the difference she took time to notice. She wasn’t trying to be an interior decorator, she just needed to check the rooms for any sign of the Arkana she was attempting to apprehend.
She went through a total of five rooms like that, bringing herself from one end of the hallway to the other.
At the very end, she could see a door that did close—and was closed—straight before her. She wondered if that led to another stairway, since none of the rooms that she had been in seemed to have any evidence of getting to another level. All of the buildings they passed on the street seemed, as best she could determine, to be at least three stories. But even if they weren’t, there was quite possibly roof access.
She was coming out of the last room on the hallway, with no sign of anyone but herself, when she heard footsteps above her.
So...another floor. She doubted there would be much noise coming through the roof since the rest of the building had been so effective at blocking out sound.
Andy hurried to the end of the hall, which was now only a few steps away. She pressed the panel next to the door and jumped out of the line of sight of the opening door as it slid back. Since there was no immediate weapons fire, she cautiously moved around and into what was indeed another stairwell.
She blew out a quiet breath and moved onto the steps. This one was also dark and she gave herself just a moment for her eyes to adjust. Her lungs wanted to breathe faster with the growing tension inside her body, but she forced it back. She couldn’t afford to be tense any more than she could afford to be anxious, so she ignored them both. Andy knew that she would have to deal with it all later, but that was for later.
Now, she pushed herself to start on her way up the stairs.
Once more keeping her back near the wall, she went up step by step. She lifted her head slightly, to give herself a quicker look at what was on the landing above her as she ascended. As her eyes took it in, the rest of her ready to duck down fast if she had to, she once more saw nothing. There was no one on the landing, and it was just another hallway with another set of rooms.
No doors, so all open and waiting for her to have to clear each one.
She reached the top of the landing, almost aggravated that the Arkana soldier hadn’t been there waiting for her at the top. The lack of anyone trying to kill her was getting tedious and tiring. Andy was trained for action, and she was ready for it.
This hallway apparently only had three rooms, and she saw why when she entered the first one.
Each room on this floor was almost twice the size of the rooms below, but they were just as sparse so it didn’t take any longer to clear each one. Just like she had below, she cleared the first one. Frustrated at finding another empty room, she hurried to the next room.
With her back to the wall and gun raised, Andy blew out a deep breath and spun into the next room…right into the barrel of an Arkana energy pulse rifle.
Andy and the Arkana froze, weapons pointed at each other with a promise of mutual destruction. Neither fired. Instead, she stared down her rifle barrel at him and watched as his shockingly blue eyes widened slightly and he spoke.
“It’s you.”
CHAPTER 20
“DO I KNOW YOU?” Andy drawled, since they both knew that she didn’t.
The Arkana smirked. Neither of them lowered their weapons even a fraction, but they weren’t shooting either. Andy considered just firing and seeing this over with, but something held her back. Arkana soldiers normally looked put-together, even in the middle of a fight, but she couldn’t help but notice that this one looked disheveled. His white hair was loose and plastered to either side of his face, and there were shadows under his pale eyes.
He tilted his head a little. “You don’t, but I do know you. Now that I look upon you, get a good look, I recognize your features.”
Andy narrowed her eyes slightly. She wanted to ask what he was talking about, but she refused to take the bait. She was not going to give him that power over her even though she really did want to know how he recognized her. She just wasn’t going to let him know that.
She didn’t say anything, and they stood there in silence for several long moments.
“You inherited his way with silence, that’s for sure,” the Arkana finally said.
Everything inside her seemed to freeze all at once. She stopped breathing and thought maybe even her heart stopped. The way he said it, and obviously the use of the word “inherit,” made it obvious who he spoke of.
He knows my father.
Her skeptical side didn’t rule out the idea that he was lying, but to what end? If he knew enough to know that was a trigger point, then he did know her and recognize her. So, if that was the case, then how did he recognize her? Was she on some sort of “Arkana’s Most Wanted” flyer among his race? She wouldn’t put it past them, but still, that didn’t ring true.
It didn’t feel true.
But there was no denying that a well-placed lie about that half of her heritage could provide a lot of “emotional capital” in the hands of the enemy, if she were to let on that it got to her. That was the struggle, and she fought it hard within herself. She had to keep her “game face” on and not let it show that it did, in fact, get to her.
Why? That was the other question. She had already rejected the entire species, and thus rejected her father as well.
“You’re still not going to say anything?” he said with clear disbelief.
“You seem to be doing enough talking for the both of us,” she said flatly.
Just shoot him and be done with it. There was an angry little voice in the back of her mind encouraging a swift end, but he wasn’t shooting at her and he wasn’t attacking her. It was a standoff for the moment, though if he made the slightest move—with something other than his mouth—she would end him, no matter what information he might possess.
“Don’t you want to know more about your father?” he asked, trying to dangle the topic in front of her like a child trying to attract the attention of a pet. “That’s how I recognized you. I can see your father in your features. I know him, or of him, at least. We haven’t had much actual conversation, a common soldier like me and...someone like him.”
The words “someone like him” ricocheted through her mind.
That made it sound like her father was someone important in the Arkana world, perhaps a leader or general of some sort. It never occurred to her that her father might be a somebody in their race.
Of course, it didn’t really change anything. She didn’t want to become part of them and fight against the ESS. She was willing to write him off along with the rest of the race, because that was what had to be done, but the sudden knowledge of him—even this little bit, were it true—was more than she’d had before. Maybe it was the fact that she knew she never would, in fact, meet her father that ma
de her want to know more about him.
No matter what, he made up half of what she was. She wanted to at least know...
But still, she did not ask. She would not allow herself the luxury of indulging that curiosity.
The Arkana stared at her, just as she stared back at him. She wondered if he would give up trying to poke holes in her mental armor, maybe just open fire again. Maybe he would tire of trying with words. It would in some ways be easier for her, and make the moment clean cut again. Yet the idea that it might happen that way made her sad, which planted a seed of doubt in her conviction.
She had to keep reminding herself that he could be lying, using false words just as easily as true ones to try to get to her.
Across from her, the Arkana pursed his white lips. “You shouldn’t feel too special, though.”
Andy said nothing, but her brows did rise slightly.
“I just mean that he hasn’t been known to keep his attentions limited,” the soldier went on flippantly. His grip on his gun, and his aim, never wavered, even as he gave a little shrug. “Anyone who takes his fancy...well, takes his fancy. We’ve done pretty well to keep to the shadows over the decades since we ended up in the far reaches of space, but he’s one of those who went in advance of our plans. Between human women and Arkana women, he’s left a trail of children over the years.”
That would mean...she had half-siblings.
Why the thought had never occurred to her before, she couldn’t say. It suddenly seemed incredibly obvious, but with everything that she had learned about herself, the Arkana, and the coming of a war... Well, her mind had been on things other than just how far that part of her heritage was spread out.
“He knows of you, though,” he went on. “The traitor.”
Andy knew that shouldn’t hurt, yet still somehow it did. She grit her back teeth together and wrestled with that desire to shoot.
“Even so, he won’t be happy with whoever kills you,” he said. “No matter how inevitable it is that it will happen. You know that you hold no privilege anymore. You may be one of the lost ones that we tried to bring back into the fold, but now we all live with orders to kill you, if we can.”
She wondered why he kept talking, then. Why didn’t he just shoot her? Could it be that if he brought her in alive, he hoped to gain some special reward? That theory seemed to bolster the likelihood that he was speaking the truth.
Yet even if he was...what could she do about it?
CHAPTER 21
THE STALEMATE DIDN’T last much longer.
Maybe he saw something in her eyes that changed his mind. She did believe what he said, but it wasn’t going to change anything in what she did or how she planned to live her life. She was human, and she was a member of the ESS Marines. Nothing he said could change that, and that was her life.
Whatever it was, he clearly decided that talking wasn’t getting him to where he wanted to be. She saw the slightest hitch in his shoulder, and knew he was about to fire.
She threw herself to the side just as the energy discharge lanced towards her. It caught the very edge of her shoulder and burned part of her uniform away, but didn’t get much skin in more than an irritating blow. Andy brought her rifle back around as quickly as possible and got off a shot, but the soldier was already running towards a door behind him that she cursed herself for not having noticed.
Her bullet bounced off the wall and lodged in a chair just as she took off after him.
The door was starting to slide shut again as she reached it and punched her way through, the thing nearly closing on her as she did. It didn’t slow her down for long, but the door led to yet one more staircase. He was already at the top of it by the time she started at the bottom. She got another shot off, but once again, it missed and just bounced off the wall.
She hurried up the steps after him, this time with far less caution than when she’d climbed the other two sets of stairs. A bolt of energy flew past her as she reached the landing, but this one didn’t catch her at all. She saw him turning back around and disappearing through another door, but this one let in sunlight through it and she knew that he was on the roof.
Andy ran down the hallway and then paused at the doorway, swinging around a moment later with her gun up, but there was no shot coming in her direction.
A slight alcove around the door gave her a little cover as she stepped out onto the roof, but as soon as she saw ahead of her, she knew she didn’t need it quite as much. He didn’t have his gun up now. He was standing very close to the edge of the roof, and she couldn’t tell if he meant to jump or thought that this would keep her from shooting him.
“You know you can’t win,” he said. “We are born of your race, but we have grown beyond you. We know more and are more than any of you could ever hope to be.”
Before she had the chance to reply or shoot, there came a loud crashing and banging from below. Someone was clearing out the debris that had blocked in the doorway and from the stream of Selerid that she suddenly heard rising, she knew it was her squad.
“You can’t win,” the nameless Arkana soldier said again, just before he did...something.
It was that same something that all of the prisoners they had tried to take did. No one in the ESS had figured it out, but he did it just then. It happened so fast that she didn’t have any time to react. The life fled his blue eyes and she saw just how vacant they were before gravity did the rest and pulled him off the roof.
She ran over to the edge and looked down, seeing his body where it had hit on the pavement below...right next to her squad. They stared up at her for a moment and all she could do was shake her head.
She knew she couldn’t spare any time to think about all of the things he had said, nor what he had just done. She turned and rushed off the rooftop, back through the door and down three flights of stairs. This time, she wasn’t moving with caution because she knew there wasn’t any other Arkana here. It had just been him and her, and now it was just her.
By the time she reached the door she had originally come through, she found her squad-mates. They had cleared the debris and now she could step out into the street.
“Report,” she said, trying to not sound as shaken as she felt.
“There were no back entrances, Major,” Dan quipped, although his small smile looked forced as he said it. “I came back around and found it like this. I couldn’t move it by myself, but it wasn’t long before these three came up and we did it together.”
“We captured the three that we were in pursuit of and left them restrained in a building on the other street,” Roxanna said. She was second in charge of Alpha Squad, so she had been the leader of her own sub-group for that short amount of time. “We’ll send someone to get them when this is over, but I somehow doubt we’ll find them still alive.”
Andy looked at the body on the ground beside them. “I think you might right,” she said, forcing herself to be as cold and flat as she could. “I pursued him into the building and eventually onto the roof. He killed himself before I could do it for him.”
If any of them wondered what had taken so long in the interim, no one said anything.
“Have we heard from any of the other squads?” she asked. It would have been routed to her, but just in case it hadn’t been able to reach her, she was going to check.
“No, Sir,” Roxanna replied, confirming that thought.
She nodded for them to walk with her and they did so, keeping weapons tight. As they walked, she touched her earpiece and called the others. Kavar reported that no more Arkana had tried to attack their position, and the 21st reported that after the initial breakthrough, no others had managed to penetrate.
Andy then called the shuttle pilot.
“This is Major Dolan,” she said. “Do you have anything for me?”
“No, Sir,” the woman replied. She wasn’t a Marine, but she did defer to the detachment leader. “We have not had any further news from the ship as to their state, but I would assume th
at to mean the battle continues. I’ve been running sensor sweeps and there are no more Arkana heading to the planet. From what I can see, which is limited in distinguishing between the two, there are no new groups of soldiers heading towards Marine positions. Many are down, including Marines.”
It was news to make a heart heavy, but it was also to be expected.
As much as no one liked to think about it, this was war, and they were on the front line. They all knew that they weren’t guaranteed to make it back out. The fiery red wound on Jade’s arm, the cut to Roxanna’s neck, and the various wounds on Anallin were all testaments to that.
“Thank you,” Andy said aloud. “Keep your eyes open and let me know if you see anything else coming towards us.”
“Yes, sir.”
They kept walking, and were partway back to their original position when Captain Valentine rang in.
“Major,” he said, sounding strained. “Another group has broken through our lines, and I have Marines down. We were pushed back before finally breaking, and the enemy is heading towards the city’s power plant. What remains of my squad and second squad is moving to engage, but the group was big. We need reinforcements.”
No rest for the wicked, as it was said. “Acknowledged. Hold on as long as you can. We are on our way.”
CHAPTER 22
SHE WASN’T willing to break all the lines and unman all of the positions, so Andy only called in two squads from her own 33rd. The 21st was already thin where they were and the 15th had taken heavy casualties. She ordered Beta and Delta Squads to move to the interior of the city and converge on the power plant and control center, which happened to house an annex building of the planetary sensor array.
The definition of a most wanted target.
Despite how much they’d already fought and the wounds they’d already taken, Andy and Alpha Squad hurried into the city. They were wary of every intersection and doorway they passed, but no Arkana were hiding in any of them. The enemy had a singular motivation, and they were racing toward it.
Earth Space Service Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3 (ESS Space Marines Omnibus) Page 21