The Price We Pay (Life After War Book 7)

by Angela White

  Trey drew up, hand floating over his chest. “If I rip off this monitor, they’ll send bombs!”

  “We thought of that,” Angela answered sweetly. “Greg?”

  Greg rushed forward and ripped Trey’s coat and shirt open as three Eagles came in to hold him. The Sergeant stayed still, observing. With multiple weapons aimed at him, there was little he could do.

  Greg quickly slapped the monitor against his own chest and Angela sneered at Trey’s stunned expression. “Simple, right? Who would have thought?”

  “You bitch!” he exclaimed.

  Angela waved her offended Eagles back.

  “You said you wanted to sit down and talk,” Angela reminded Trey. She led the way to the mess this time.

  Trey jerked loose of the Eagles and followed her with a hand on his belt, telling them he had another weapon.

  Angela sat down and waved a hand at the drinks on the small table.

  “Like I’d fall for that,” Trey snorted. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Angela poured herself a cup of the warm tea. “Fine. Pull out-leave for your bunker, and I won’t kill any more of your men.”

  Trey was used to bravado. “I don’t deal. I deliver the orders. Where’s Mitchel?”

  Angela jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “In a cell behind us. Can probably hear this conversation, though he can’t respond.”

  “I want him on the chopper.”

  Angela only sipped her drink, and Trey felt a shard of concern as she continued to stare. “Load him up.”

  “We haven’t finished negotiating,” Angela reminded the mercenary, busy digging into his mind. “Ready to hear the terms?”

  Trey was quickly tiring of the game. “What do you want, lady?”

  “Angela.”

  Trey’s eyes widened and eager lights flooded them. “Really.”

  Donner had expected her to use someone else during these negotiations, that she would risk being in the open this way.

  Trey’s pilot and guard exchanged glances that gave them away as information collectors, and Angela waved them both into chairs by Trey.

  The men sat down warily, but didn’t scorn her offer of a drink as Trey had.

  Angela studied the man Donner had sent. Trey’s mind was a lot like Kenn’s (dark) but she picking up enough to make the connections she needed. Trey was a minor talent at best, a hack who thought he was better than he was. Donner only kept him around because he was hard for their kind to read, which meant he could keep secrets. She had no doubt he held many of those.

  “But you’re expendable to him,” Angela pointed out. “That’s why he sent you.”

  Trey stated to protest, but Angela wasn’t finished.

  “You pretend you’re his right hand, but something happened on your last run to…Canada, and he’s wanted rid of you since.”

  “You’re using my secrets, not Donner’s,” Trey refuted uneasily. “You haven’t even met Donner and our kind can’t—”

  “Our kind,” Angela picked up. “Really.”

  Trey snapped his mouth shut and Angela leaned forward. “He called me. I can access him now, any time I want to, from any place.”

  It wasn’t completely true, and she knew when he figured her out by the way he crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Nice try. No one can do that.”

  “Why do you think they’d murder thousands of men for me?” Angela planted the ideas, sure they would take root. Donner had made a mistake by sending his weakest team link. His walls were incredibly tick, but she was busting right through them now and he still hadn’t noticed.

  “My child will be stronger,” she distracted further.

  Trey hadn’t known she was pregnant, something Donner hadn’t mentioned when he’d told them about this run. He’d sent them in early, blind, and they’d been in place since before the first base fell. When Garret had called the last time, Donner had been on his way back from Canada.

  Canada. It went wrong there.

  What happened in Canada?

  Donner made us kill them.

  Trey snapped his mind back to the sexy woman watching him knowingly. “Stay outta my head!”

  “Fine,” Angela sighed regretfully. “Would you like something to eat or maybe a shave?”

  Trey frowned. “I’m not staying that long. Are we done?”

  “Not yet,” Angela stalled, digging deeper. “I need to know my people will be safe once Adrian and I are gone. Can you promise that?”

  Trey slowly took out a paper and placed it on the table. “They want these people to stand trial. The rest are free to go as soon as they sign a loyalty form.”

  Trey stared at the corner of the tent, where an enormous shadow of a wolf sat. Trey couldn’t discern the animal’s coloring through the canvas, but he knew who it was. Dog’s legend was still growing.

  Angela kept tight control of her rage at the thought of her people having to declare loyalty to the people who had caused all this hell. “Will the trials be held here?”

  “Utah.” Trey said, confirming the location of the bunker without knowing he was doing so.

  “I see.” Angela murmured. “And when that chopper leaves with Adrian—it will also go west to the bunker?”

  Trey shrugged, not seeing any reason to lie to someone who would be dead or in custody very soon. “Could be. Could also be that Donner has other plans, but that won’t affect the deal you make. The government will haunt him, not you.”

  “He’s gone rouge,” Angela guessed.

  Trey had assumed she and her spies already knew and he frowned. “We haven’t talked to base since he landed. The radio silence is for his sheep, not yours.”

  Angela stared at him in dawning comprehension. “He wasn’t going to attack us?”

  Trey leered. “Nope. He was about to abscond with a thousand of Uncle Sam’s men and all that gear. You didn’t mean anything to him.”

  Angela wanted to call him a liar, but didn’t read one in his mind. He believed Donner had been about to take them south to run over the Mexicans. He hadn’t been aiming for Safe Haven.

  “Until I pointed him here,” Angela breathed, looking a bit stunned by what she’ done, by the mistake. “Oh, shit.”

  “Exactly,” Trey agreed. “But now that you’ve drawn blood, he’ll have his turn.”

  “Why take Adrian?” Angela asked, obviously trying to recover.

  “Safety, I assume.” Trey shrugged. “You know how handy that drawing power can be and not all of us have it.”

  “Have you been with Donner long?” She asked politely.

  Trey knew what she was doing, but he couldn’t stop it from working. Her voice was in his mind, whispering things he normally wouldn’t have put together, and he shook his head to clear the buzzing.

  “Years.” Trey glanced at his watch. “I have orders to keep it moving. We done here?”

  “You’d like to examine the prisoner, I’d bet.” Angela stood up. “Step this way.”

  “I’d like him loaded and to be on my way,” Trey stated angrily. “I’ll be back for you later.”

  Angela led them outside, around the sentries and to the rear of the tent, where three small cells waited. Adrian was in the center, still bound and gagged, but bright-eyed and alertly listening.

  As they went outside, Dog moved around the corner of the canvas, staring in menace at Trey.

  The mercenary turned to find the wolf only feet away and flinched. “Damn!”

  Angela snickered. “Say hi to Dog.”

  Get out. While you still can, the wolf growled softly.

  “Now, Dog, this man is our guest.”

  The wolf snorted, shaking his head.

  Shocked, Trey quickly switched to Angela’s left, putting her and Adrian’s cage between them. “He’s a descendant!”

  Angela didn’t correct him, thinking Dog’s legend would be as infamous as Brady’s.

  “I see Adrian. Let’s go.”

  “Go?” Angela asked as
the mixed team of Eagles came from behind the shed and stepped toward them. “You can’t go. We’re just getting to know you.”

  Trey started to reach for the spare firearm he kept in his waistband and Kyle was there to tackle him. Both men went to the ground, wrestling for control.

  Kyle was stronger than Trey, but he fought fairly. Trey slammed his head against Kyle’s in a hard thud.

  Kyle staggered back, hands coming up defensively, and Angela waved at Shawn to help subdue the man.

  Shawn motioned Greg along and as they rushed him, Angela shoved into Trey’s mind, screaming. Baby killerrrr!

  Trey was shocked into stillness, and the Eagles captured him without any more fighting. Trey had been a boxer, was in excellent health, and he was carrying a guilt for war-time sins committed during peace, against civilians. It had taken Angela a minute to break through his melodies and waves, but she had him now. “They were your neighbors! You harmed them knowingly! You’ll burn forever!”

  With each accusation, Trey shrank down until he was lying on the ground, and Angela stopped.

  She straightened up as if insane and flipping personalities.

  “Get him out of my sight for now. We’ll kill him in some special way when it’s all over.”

  The Eagles dragged Trey, who was now pleading for his life, to the chopper and tossed him on. Behind them, Angela mocked his astonishment. She motioned to his pilot. “Get him out of here.”

  When the guard would have gone too, Angela placed a light hand on his arm. “Why don’t you stay for a while, David?”

  Neither he nor the pilot had moved an inch when Trey was grabbed.

  After witnessing what she’d done to Trey, so fast, Sergeant Wallz didn’t want any part of it. They’d never faced descendants who were like them—ruthless—and David didn’t like the odds.

  “Good man,” Angela stated, answering the thought. “But not good enough to absolve you. You’ll be my guest.”

  Angela made a short motion to Kyle and the top Eagle shoved Trey and the pilot onto the chopper.

  Dog padding alongside his escorts kept Trey from triggering another battle and he was glad of it when the chopper began to rise and he got a clear view of all the armed men who’d been hiding around Angela’s camp. He wouldn’t have gotten out alive.

  “You promised to give us Adrian!” Trey remembered, shouting down.

  Angela shrugged as the chopper lifted off and Trey punched the side of the bird in frustration. How had that happened?

  You underestimated me! Angela shoved into his thoughts. You saw a woman and dismissed her. Big mistake.

  She shut the door between them only because she didn’t need to listen in to know how Donner would react to the news. It would be typical bad guy storms around and maybe even kills the messenger. It would stir him up, force him to honor his words of executing their hostages, and the waiting Eagle teams could move in. Knowing which camp or building their people were in was important during a firefight. Angela had sent out a number of spies and saboteurs, and not all of them were accounted for yet. Her plan to flush Donner west had worked, according to the reports that were dripping in, but she didn’t have the first injury lists yet to know if it had saved lives or cost them.

  “Put the Sergeant somewhere safe,” Angela instructed.

  David didn’t resist. He knew better, but he was also curious. Was she worth all of the lives Donner was sacrificing?

  Angela turned to discover that Adrian had managed to remove his gag and his bonds. He was sitting on the dusty ground, lighting a crumbled cigarette.

  Angela frowned, ignoring the prisoner in the cell to Adrian’s right. “They forgot to search you.”

  “You’d deny me a smoke?” Adrian asked. “Small potatoes compared to denying the Major his prizes.”

  Angela shrugged, lighting her own cigarette. “It’s how negotiations work, right?”

  “Sure,” Adrian snorted. “It was textbook, if you want to get your people killed.”

  “Do you believe him?” she asked suddenly. “About Donner not attacking us.”

  Adrian didn’t want to help her—it was in his tone and on his face—but he couldn’t deny her, not even now. “No. We’re big fish. Lot of gifts to the fisherman who reels us in.”

  “And going rouge?” she insisted. “That’s happening with the bases. Has been all along, I’d think.”

  “Common story,” he gave reluctantly. “You read my notes.

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “More than once. It told me how to get under their skin, but why haven’t they gone against any bad descendants? There has to be more than you out there.”

  Adrian glared. “Most of them were already employed by the government. No need to fight with your own teams.”

  Angela waited for more, but Adrian leaned against the bars and shut his lids. The misery was a veil that swallowed them both for a minute and Angela was unable to help being flashed to their first meeting. Their contact had been earth-shattering, consuming, and she hadn’t forgotten what she’d seen. For just an instant, her shell cracked and she stared at Adrian openly.

  Adrian felt it and it took all of his control not to respond. “Go away or kill me.”

  Angela blinked at the hostile tone and then turned away. She called Kyle over with an expression that didn’t belie her inner struggles. “Give the signal and get out of here.”

  Kyle raised a hand and spun it, and a group of Eagles rushed to light the fuses on the line of fireworks that had been waiting under tarps for days.

  As the rockets burst overhead, color and sound echoing for miles, the final war began.

  3

  Donner waited for the chopper to land, noting the lack of a prisoner and the absence of one man. Seeing that it had been David, who he considered valuable, Donner slammed the door to the small cabin and went to the desk.

  “She read him,” Donner murmured. That was the only way she’d been able to do it. He didn’t need Trey to tell him that he’d lost control and had no idea how it had happened. Unlike the rest of his team, Trey had the ability to block his thoughts, which meant he had no practice, no control, when that gift was taken away.

  “She’s stronger than they estimated,” Donner muttered. “And corrupt or she would have sent Mitchel in.”

  Donner ignored Trey when he reluctantly pushed the door open and came inside.

  Donner had never heard of descendants who were corrupted, but still saved their followers or fought for them—not without payment and that clearly wasn’t the case here. How had those weak survivors convinced Adrian and Angela to care for them? Once descendants became corrupt, they never went back. It was documented. The scientists had tried to reverse the process and failed every time.

  It meant that the guilt he’d planned to use (threatening other docs like those she was hiding) wouldn’t work. He could kill them all and she still wouldn’t cave.

  “What does she care about?” he wondered.

  Trey, trying desperately to think of anything he could that would put him in the clear with the boss, gestured toward the camp he’d just left. “Weren’t any kids or elderly at the site, and no animals or living setups. She’s got them all stashed somewhere.”

  “In the mountain,” Donner answered promptly. “We have satellite images, heat signatures.”

  “Let’s bomb them, Donner. Please don’t play with her. She’s…you.”

  Donner chuckled at the assessment. No woman was his equal, no matter how strong her powers were.

  Trey spotted movement outside the window and drifted that way while Donner laughed at him. He hated this run already… What was that?

  “Uh, Major?”

  “What is it now, Trey? You know, you haven’t been the same since Canada.”

  Trey was too surprised to register the sore topic. “I’ve never seen so many.”

  Donner came to the window in time to watch the thickest part of the flock of birds going over the small cabin he’d chosen as his newest headq
uarters. He was running through alternates.

  The birds were large and noisy, screaming at each other as they stripped the area of everything alive that moved. A rabbit fell to the horde and the two men watched in shock as the birds covered the yard and then the chopper.

  The pilot, who’d been eating and not paying attention, was quickly covered. He collapsed under the vicious pecking and scratching, blood running down his arms as he tried to pull them off.

  “Help him?”

  Donner nodded, mind going to the coming battle. “Yes.”

  Trey shoved the window up and took aim with the AWS rifle that he’d had a long time. He fired once and the pilot stopped screaming.

  Angry, the birds flew away in disappointed rage, taking the rest of the cawing flock with them.

  Trey looked at Donner in a daze. “She sent them.”

  Donner snorted, going to his desk. “None of us can do that. There hasn’t been a descendant who can control nature or even communicate with it in a hundred years. Stop being paranoid. And get out. Now.”

  Trey didn’t bother to slam the door. He was afraid of drawing the big crows and he detoured around the pilot’s mangled body with a grimace. “I hate birds. Hate them!”

  Donner heard his newest guards arrive a few minutes later, and let himself fall deeper into planning something that would not only draw blood, but also splash it over these cliffs like a canvas. So far, he’d been working with the army soldiers, but he needed more of his team. Four of them should be enough and the rest could continue the mission he’d given them. Once they captured Safe Haven’s members, Angela and Adrian would have no choice but to surrender.

  If they didn’t and all those people died, their own kind would never forgive them, which would be worse than being dead for a descendant. They’d give themselves up and Donner would toss one of them to the government and be free to flee south with his reward. And whatever parts of their army that actually survived. Donner didn’t think many of the soldiers would come through the fight. Angela had already shown she was smart. The fights would be vicious, bloody battles. The chopper flying overhead was the signal to his troops.