The ship glided to rest in a dark glen overshadowed by thick trees. Meters distant, the mountain steeply sloped downhill. Gorno was five kilometers distant, and just before they landed, she had glimpsed its silver, flat dome beyond the trees.
“It’s just after twelve,” Joshua said. “We attack at dusk. If we’re not back by twenty one hundred hours, fly back to Zyra.”
“Nope,” Michael said. “Won’t think like that. When you’re ready to escape, hit your transponder’s emergency button. It’ll transmit your location. I can be there in minutes.”
The doctor spoke. “Damon could die if we wait too long.”
Both Joshua and Michael turned to Anya.
It was up to her. If she said the word, Michael would return to the safety of Zyra. But that course of action would jeopardize the lives of her other siblings. She touched her brother’s cool skin. “Damon would want us to rescue the others. He’d never abandon a fight.”
Joshua’s smile almost softened her heart toward him. Almost. “I agree,” he said. “Michael, if you haven’t heard from us by dawn, head home.”
Michael grinned, but did not answer.
Joshua’s eyes rolled skyward. “Insubordination everywhere I look.”
“If we’re in danger, we’ll move. Otherwise, I’ll stick close for as long as I can. I won’t leave you alone in that devil’s city.”
Joshua gripped his brother’s shoulder. “You turned out all right.”
“Maybe I had a good example.”
Joshua glanced at Anya. “Ready?”
At her nod, he slung a pack on his back and the door slid open. He jumped down into the deep, powdery snow, and his gloved hand steadied her as she jumped out, too. The door slid shut.
They were alone in the silent forest.
“Come on.” Joshua headed at a fast clip down the slope. Pine trees dotted the pristine white landscape.
“We need a sled,” Anya said. “It would be a lot quicker.”
He glanced at his handheld computer. Sunlight revealed the raw, black burn mark slicing down the left side of his face. It still looked awful, although she knew it had been treated in Zyra. Hopefully, it would be better soon. “Satellite shows a cliff a kilometer east. Sledding is not a good idea.” After checking more images, he shoved it into his coat pocket.
Although Joshua had done a remarkable job piloting the bird, she couldn’t help but ask, “How is your eye?”
“Pretty clear. But colors are faded in the left one.”
“That’s good.” Improving. She was glad.
They walked in silence. It didn’t feel like a friendly silence, however. Unresolved issues festered between them. Better to discuss them now, Anya reasoned, so they could focus on their mission later. Hopefully, their “discussion” wouldn’t deteriorate matters still further.
She followed behind him, walking in his deep footprints. They hugged the tree line of the pines as much as possible. Although it would be difficult to carry on an argument with the back of Joshua’s parka, she said, “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
Their feet swished and clumped through deep snow.
Shortly, Joshua said, “You don’t want to know.”
“You’re mad I planned to surrender to Yegor.”
“I’m angry you won’t follow orders.”
“Onred released Damon in good faith. We killed Yegor. We ended negotiations before they could begin.”
“Negotiations would not have saved your family.”
“So you say. I think differently.”
“As a soldier, you follow orders. You don’t think.”
Anya gasped. “I am not a soldier.”
“That’s clear.”
She snapped, “I’m not brain dead, either. Birn’s plan seemed stupid. To him, my family was expendable. He was wrong. You’re both wrong.”
Joshua abruptly stopped and faced her. She staggered to a stop, just shy of plowing into him.
His hand on her elbow steadied her. “You’d be dead now if you had surrendered to Yegor.” Fire gleamed in the topaz gaze.
“So you say,” she scoffed.
“So I know.” His grip tightened. “I know those men. Yegor loved to torture prisoners.” At her small gasp, he smiled thinly. “Didn’t know that? Yes, Anya. I might, as a soldier and baron, know a few things you don’t.”
“I want to protect my family. I would do anything…”
“And Onred knows that. He’s playing you. He dangles hope like a carrot, knowing you’ll bite. You let your heart rule you.”
Anya wrenched her arm free. “Well, that’s better than being cold and analytical, like you.”
“I am not…”
“You are! You’re supposed to be our protector. But you think my brother and sisters are expendable, don’t you?”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No!” Through his teeth, he said, “I hate this just as much as you do.”
“And yet you ordered the attack on Yegor!” Her voice rose. “You knew full well that would enrage Onred. He’s already threatened to…” She drew a gasping breath, unable to say aloud what Onred had threatened to do to Marli. In a thin, furious voice, she pressed on, “But that didn’t stop you! Not for one second. Because you’ve got a heart of ice. You’re rigid and inflexible and have a conniption fit whenever I disobey you. You know why? Because you’re a control freak. Joshua Van Heisman,” she mocked. “The mighty baron of Donetsk. Heaven help anyone who steps on your…”
“Shut up,” he ground out. His fingers bit into her shoulder. It hurt. Even through the snow gear.
Tears smarted her eyes. “You’re bigger than me. You’re stronger than me. Is this how you’ll subdue me, Joshua? By brute strength? Since you don’t want to hear the truth, you’ll strong arm me into being quiet?”
“No. Would you just…”
“I hate you!” Overcome by the violence of her emotions, she shoved him, hard. Eyes flaring wide in surprise, Joshua toppled backward. Unfortunately, since he still had a grip on her shoulder, she went with him. Anya ate a mouthful of snow, and ice plowed inside her nostrils. She elbowed up, snorting free of the cold, suffocating powder. She’d landed half on and half off of Joshua. He was buried so deep he looked like a sunken snow angel. Shock still registered on his face.
Hot emotion shook through her. Tears burned, but Anya wouldn’t cry. She hated arguing with Joshua. But he refused to see her as an adult. He still wanted her to blindly obey him, like a child. Or a soldier. Whether he liked it or not, she was neither. She had a mind of her own. And he wasn’t always right. Her planned marriage to Onred was a case in point.
Anya levered herself completely on top of him, deciding to take advantage of her brief moment of control over him. She gazed down into his dark, stormy brown eyes.
“Joshua.” She drew a breath. “I hate this. I hate arguing with you. But I will never be a soldier. Not ever. I want to do what’s right. I want to help you. But my family is in danger. They come first. Before my life. Before your orders. Don’t you see? I love them.”
“I love them, too.” To her complete surprise, his snowy hand lifted, and then gently cupped her cheek. “But you…” He heaved a deep breath.
Her breath caught. “Joshua...”
“Listen,” he said gruffly. “When I knew you meant to surrender to them, I lost my head. I can’t lose you. I would do anything to save you. Do you understand that?”
“Yes.” Could he possibly…? “Joshua…”
“Shh.” His snow encrusted glove brushed across her lips. “I’m sorry about your family. I truly am. But Onred will never release them. That’s a fact. They may still be alive—but not for much longer. That’s why we’re here now. I’m going to rescue them, if I can.”
Her heart melted a little more. Joshua loved her family. That’s why he was here. Maybe he wasn’t as hard and cold as she had declared.
“Listen, Anya. If we hadn’t fired on Yegor first, the Altai would have
destroyed us. I’m certain Onred ordered them to annihilate us. It’s how he operates. We were lucky to escape with Damon.”
Anya finally began to understand Joshua’s point of view. “I see,” she said faintly. Onred did plan to kill her family, whether she surrendered or not. “I should have listened to you. But I was desperate to find a way—any way—to save my family. I didn’t want to believe… I’m sorry.”
“Will you trust me?”
She had been foolish not to trust him. If she had truly listened to him from the beginning, her harebrained surrender plan would never have formed.
“Yes. I will.”
“Good,” he murmured. His hand slid behind her neck, and he drew her down to him. She surrendered utterly when his warm, firm lips parted beneath her own. His kiss threatened to steal her soul.
By the time Joshua released her, Anya felt quite warm, lying in the snow with him. Color washed his good cheekbone. His lips lifted in a faint smile, “We’d better go, or I might keep you here until dusk.”
She blushed. “That is not appropriate talk, Baron.”
He pushed a wisp of hair behind her ear. “Then get off me. We’ve got a mission to accomplish.”
She gave a tiny gasp. “Like I’m the one holding us up!” Well, maybe she had been. Anya rolled off and offered him a helping hand out of the snow bed. Then she swiped snow off his back and broad shoulders until he tramped forward, leaving her behind.
“Another two hours to Gorno,” he reported. “Maybe more, depending on the climb down the cliff.”
“How will we get inside?”
“I have a few ideas.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Joshua, in truth, had very few ideas about how to get inside Gorno. As a pilot, he had often screamed into battle at Mach 1, with all guns blazing. Sometimes as baron he flew by the seat of his pants, too. Amazingly, it usually worked out. However, he preferred to have backup plans. Not much chance of those now. Formulating a plan B, let alone a plan C, when plan A seemed near impossible, was out of the question.
He slogged through the deep snow, breaking an easier path for Anya, and trying to forget the kisses they had shared. Those had been a mistake. Correction. The kisses in Tash had been his first mistake. What had he been thinking? Their intimacy was a taste of what he’d always longed for—the desire to love her. Now he would have to pay the price for that joy, for it was getting harder and harder to keep his hands off of her. Somehow, he had to find the strength to resist what his whole body and soul had desperately craved for so long.
He forced his mind back to the battle ahead.
It was amazing how easy it had been to slip back into the role of military pilot. Fighting Onred’s birds had felt good, as if he’d only taken a moment’s hiatus from battle, rather than twelve years. Would it be so bad to lose his baronship, and be expelled from Donetsk to become a pilot—a civilian pilot—in another territory, in order to gain Anya as his own?
His hungry mind again slipped back, reliving their shared passion. Even his soul, which he had long ago thought dead, had come alive, deeply longing for the love he felt in her arms. He wanted a lifetime to love her. He wanted it with a fierce, almost frightening intensity.
But that selfish course of action would destroy her. She’d lose her home and her inheritance. The Dubrovnyks, after two centuries of power, would lose all rights to rule in Donetsk Territory. He would not allow that to happen.
It may be a moot point, anyway. By this time tomorrow, he could be dead. His mission, above all, was to protect Anya and rescue her family. And defeat Onred. He burned for the opportunity to kill that bastard with his bare hands. Then he could die a happy man.
Joshua glanced back at Anya. His gut tightened. Maybe not. Damn it, but he was a selfish bastard. He suspected she loved him. She’d almost told him twice, but he wouldn’t allow her to say it. He couldn’t allow himself to believe it. And if he didn’t know for a fact that she’d follow him on her own, he wouldn’t have allowed her to be here now. Better to keep an eye on her, and keep her safe. He’d lay down his life to do so.
Richert’s ideas had given him hope. But if he couldn’t make things legal and right between himself and Anya, so his passion for her would not destroy her…
Joshua gritted his jaw, and struggled to ignore the pain ripping like claws through his soul. If he couldn’t…
To protect her, he’d have to find the strength to walk away.
* * * * *
Anya and Joshua managed to skirt the cliff face, but the topmost, rocky path down to the canyon floor, where Gorno’s base was located, was slick in places, and treacherous. The flat, silver dome of Gorno loomed around the next jut of the mountain.
The canyon toward which they descended now was narrow—perhaps half a kilometer wide, if that—and deeply shadowed. Higher mountains reared on the opposite side. In school, Anya had learned that all of Onred’s territory was mountainous. No wonder he lusted for their open land. Even worse, this valley appeared ill-suited for greenhouses. The sun would be lucky to penetrate to the canyon floor for an hour each day. Where did Onred keep his greenhouses? Or did he import goods from the east? That would be expensive.
The sun slid behind thick gray clouds as they left behind the steep, rocky cliff face and cut into the fragrant pine forest, trying to avoid Onred’s surveillance systems. So far, Joshua’s computer had picked up the infrared detectors, and they had skirted them successfully.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Anya said. Her legs ached from plowing through the deep snow, but she ignored the discomfort. “The lasers on Michael’s bird shot white fire. Onred’s birds exploded on the first hit. Why?”
“Michael’s lasers are prototypes. They’re ten times more lethal than ordinary lasers.”
Anya gasped. “Ten times?”
Joshua grunted an affirmation and ducked under a pine branch. Keeping close to the trees helped hide their footprints from scout airbirds. A few flew at intervals overhead, but no one appeared to be looking for them. Yet.
“Why are prototype lasers on Michael’s ship?”
“He tests all the prototypes.”
She thought about the DiaMoRCs, and Astana’s other technological wonders. Slowly, she said, “ZCA is more than your backup command center. Isn’t it?”
“Much more. And it’s classified. Only my elite pilots know about ZCA. Birn and Ray know it exists, but not its location. It has to stay that way, for security reasons.”
“I understand.”
Joshua stopped, so she drew level with him. “Do you? Our enemies would kill for the information you know about ZCA.”
“But they don’t know it exists. Right?”
“Right.” He trudged forward again.
“Why don’t Ray or Birn know its location? If something happens to you, who will tell them?”
“Michael. Or one of his officers, depending on the situation. ZCA is on a need-to-know basis only.”
“How did you build it, then, without anyone learning about it?”
“I selected military engineers and soldiers who have become permanent residents of Tash. The caverns were already there. Michael oversaw the construction. Piece by piece, we put it together.”
“So Richert doesn’t know it exists, and neither does Onred.”
Joshua tossed a brief smile over his shoulder. “You didn’t, did you?”
“No.” What other details about Donetsk did Joshua know? During the last few days she had come to learn so many things about her territory—and about Joshua—that she had never known before. No doubt many more mysteries remained. She wanted to learn them all, by Joshua’s side. If only they could survive the hours ahead. If only they could save her family.
“Are we the only extraction team?” she asked after a while.
“No. The others will parachute down after dusk. My job is to deactivate security.”
“Then my job will be to find my family.”
“We’ll look toget
her.”
Anya did not reply. Splitting up made more sense to her. Surely they’d find her family faster that way. But she told herself to trust Joshua this time. He was the experienced soldier. If her family could be rescued, Joshua would know best how to accomplish it.
Trees grew sparser and appeared more spindly as they neared the canyon floor, as if the pine needles had been eaten up by a wasting disease. Shadows lengthened and appeared to darken. Maybe it was Anya’s imagination, but the closer they came to Gorno, the gloomier it felt. The mountain was silent.
“It’s eerie,” she whispered to Joshua. “Why is it so quiet?”
“I don’t know.”
They edged around the last outcropping of mountain and froze.
Gorno’s foundation lay before them on a snowy, frozen lake. Its few maintenance shacks appeared closed. No vehicles or humans moved. Steel columns curved skyward, supporting the sky city. The straight column in the center must be the security elevator. Dark red lights under-circled the belly of Gorno, as if it were a giant flying saucer. She whispered to Joshua, “It can’t fly, can it?”
“No.” With a frown, he pulled specialty folding lenses from his pocket and surveyed the snowy lake scene.
“Well?” she whispered.
“It’s deserted.”
“Where is everyone?”
“I don’t know.” Joshua looked up. “I see people moving through the windows.”
“But no one’s guarding the foundation?”
Joshua pulled off the lenses. “My computer is picking up cameras, infrared triggered lasers, and a low-grade shield.”
“Like Michael’s shield?”
A smile ghosted Joshua’s lips. “Not even close.”
Anya craned her neck back. Marli, Elise, and David were prisoners up there. Somewhere. “How do we get inside? If we cross that snow pack, we’ll be spotted.”
Ice Baron (Ice Chronicles, Book One (science fiction romance)) Page 19