THE RED MIST TRILOGY: The Box Set

by R T Green

  I put my hands on her cheeks, looked straight into her sad eyes. ‘No, Zana. What has to be is you and me, together.’

  She eased my hands away, shook her head. ‘Please sit down, Madeline.’

  I slumped into the co-pilot’s chair. I wasn’t getting through to her. And in my mind I could see her disappearing, forever. ‘Tell me what this is about, Zana.’

  She took my hand. ‘Some time ago, I swore to myself I would never take another Calanduran life. Today I did, because there was no choice. If I hadn’t, he would have taken yours. But now I have no choice but to take another. Your planet is safe from my sister’s evil, but if I do not end her life she will forever spread her menace through the universe. I cannot let that happen, so I must pursue her until it is done.’

  I could understand that. More than she realized. ‘Zana, let me tell you something. A few days ago you begged me not to be the bait on the hook. But although it was something I had to do, I never told you the real reason. Yes, of course saving the girls was crucial, but mostly it was the hope it would lead me to Tiri. So I could kill her.’

  ‘I think perhaps I knew that, Madeline.’

  ‘But I failed, didn’t I? Now she’s flown away, thinking she’s out of my reach. So take me with you, and I won’t fail… and you don’t have to kill your own sister.’

  Still she was shaking her head. ‘You don’t understand, Madeline. I can follow her radiation trail, but the speeds of both our craft are the same. I cannot catch up with her, and even if I could, my craft has no weapons. My only hope is to follow her until she lands on another planet, and look her in the eyes as I take her life.’

  ‘So it might be a while. I don’t care.’

  ‘Madeline… it is likely to be many years. Your home, and your life, is here. In truth, I may never return to Earth.

  ‘Oh.’ I felt my head lower, couldn’t stop it. ‘I didn’t realize that.’

  We walked hand in hand back through the trees. The guys were standing together, looking a little lost after all the activity. The girls were gone, just one chopper still sitting on the lawn, its rotor-blades spinning.

  ‘We were just about to come and find you,’ said Coop.

  ‘No need now,’ I said.

  ‘Just been talking to Scott. He wants us back in London, making a full report, and explaining why our very expensive van is a pile of scrap.’

  ‘That one’s easy,’ grinned Shirl. ‘It’s because you’re a facking useless driver!’

  ‘I could put you on report, agent,’ he laughed.

  I saw Zana’s eyes drop to the ground. ‘You’ll have to do it without me,’ she said quietly.

  ‘Zana?’ Miles frowned.

  ‘I’m going after my sister. She cannot be allowed to go on destroying people’s lives.’

  Coop looked at me with raised eyebrows. He knew what I was going to say before I’d uttered a word.

  ‘And I’m sorry guys, but DIAL is going to have to try and get by without me. I’m going too.’

  Shirl looked devastated. ‘But… how long will you be gone?’

  I hugged her tight. ‘No idea. But we might never be back, Shirl.’

  She wiped away a tear. ‘I’ll miss you, so much. And I’m jealous, you bitches. Two lovebirds on an epic mission, chasing the Borg queen across the galaxy… how facking romantic is that?’

  I laughed, but then I noticed Coop had turned away. ‘Hey boss… I have to do this.’

  He pulled me into him. ‘I know, kid. Just kinda got used to having you both around, you know?’

  ‘Got used to being around, Coop. I’ll really miss you.’

  ‘Just be safe, ok? You ain’t got me to watch your back anymore, Maddie.’

  I pushed him away, grinning. ‘And that’s the last time you’ll call me Maddie!’

  Miles and Zana were locked in a tight hug. ‘Hey, Miles. Save a bit of her for me.’

  He broke away, tears in his eyes. I held him tight, kissed him on the cheek. ‘Just look after the old Jamaican for me, ok?’

  ‘Hey…’ Coop retorted, grinning.

  ‘I will’, said Miles. ‘It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it!’

  The chopper pilot was waving out of the cockpit window. It was time to leave. Darkness was fast approaching, and in one way I was glad of it.

  Saying goodbye to people who had become dear to me was getting harder by the second.

  We stood hand-in-hand, watching them run to the chopper and climb inside. Three hands waved a last goodbye to us, and we waved one back.

  Coop couldn’t tear his eyes away from the window. As the chopper rose into the air, he watched the two girls he’d done all he could to keep safe dwindle to tiny specks.

  He smiled to himself, memories flooding back of the times they’d spent together. He’d given Zana the codename Red Mist when it had all started, what seemed like a lifetime ago. She’d always worn red, and she was harder to get a hold of than a handful of mist.

  It had been an appropriate tag back then, when he’d thought she was one of the bad guys. But she’d proved him wrong. And so had Madeline. Both of them had first met believing neither had a heart or a soul.

  How things change.

  Miles’s face appeared beside him. ‘You think we’ll ever see them again, Coop?’

  He shook his head. Back on Dawson’s Hill, when Madeline had killed Carl because she thought he’d ended Zana’s life, he’d let her go, told her to run. But as he’d watched her disappear from his sight, shattered and heartbroken, something in the back of his mind had told him they would meet again.

  This time, he knew for sure they never would.

  INFINITY

  My body seemed to want to flatten into the seat as Zana pointed the shuttle’s nose into the dark-blue sky and we blasted into the upper atmosphere in minutes.

  But then the acceleration slowed, and she smiled across to me. ‘So what do you think?’

  ‘Wow…’ I could hardly speak, gazing through the bridge windows at the curve of the Earth below us. Right at that moment, it was the most incredible sight I’d ever seen.

  I got the feeling it might not top the list for too long.

  ‘Look ahead,’ Zana said.

  I dragged my eyes away from the sight I might never see again. We’d left the atmosphere, and surrounding us was a kaleidoscope of stars brighter than I could ever have imagined. Billions of pinpricks of white light, so far away and yet making me feel like I could reach out and grab them.

  ‘Glad you came now?’ she smiled, taking my hand.

  ‘I was glad I came when the hatch door closed.’

  ‘I’m glad you came too.’

  There was one more goodbye I had to say. We were still close enough to Earth for Zana to patch me into the MI6 switchboard. After a bit of persuasion, they put me through to the DIAL offices. Duncan Scott thanked us both for what we’d done, the emotion in his voice coming through as clear as his words.

  Then he passed me over to my dad. I’d felt so bad for him and Tami; they’d come all the way from Tobago to be with me, but as things had turned out we’d hardly seen each other. They were still at DIAL HQ, waiting for us to return safe.

  I shed a few more tears as we talked. He understood why he most likely wouldn’t see his daughter again, and so did a devastated Tami.

  It was the hardest call I’d ever had to make.

  But it was the final, emotional closure on my old life.

  Four hours later, exhaustion overcame us. Zana put the ship on auto-pilot, the trace on Tiri’s radiation signature locked in to the navigation computer. We sank into the bunk in her cabin, covered ourselves with the duvet, and shut the universe away.

  ‘I so want to make love to you,’ she murmured, half-asleep.

  ‘So do I. But you’d probably insult me by falling asleep halfway through.’

  She smiled beautifully, kissed me softly. ‘Yes, I think I would.’

  It was never going to happen, not right then. But tomorro
w it would, and the perfect joy we bring to each other would shine once more, and never be extinguished again.

  A minute later she was asleep, and as I lay on my back, her head nestled on my shoulder, her skin warm and so beautiful against my own, I allowed a final few tears to fall.

  Bitter-sweet tears for Lisa, whose sad warrior life had been brightened by our brief yet meaningful relationship, but who had died knowing the comfort the closeness of hearts could bring.

  And tears of utter peace, which only true love can bring. Our road to here has been a rocky one, strewn with hazards only an unstoppable love could cross. There would be more dangers ahead, but we will face them as one, an unbreakable force driven by an equally unbreakable bond.

  You will perish at our hands, Tiri.

  I know that too.

  I kissed Zana on her forehead, a featherlike kiss that I hoped wouldn’t wake her, but something I had to do. I could feel myself drifting away, and I just had to tell her silently I loved her one last time before I fell asleep.

  In one way I have ended up with nothing. No home or possessions, no money that is any use, no career. But those things are worthless to me now.

  Because in the way that really matters, I have everything.

  And although our adventures will continue, as my exhausted eyes close, so does my story. Cocooned in a silent mist of togetherness and pure love, I have all I need until the day I die.

  And that is the perfect time to say goodbye.

  _______________

  I hope you’ve enjoyed the Red Mist Trilogy.

  How about this for your next RTG read…

  Laughs and scares all the way as newly-partnered

  IPPD detectives Fi and RC investigate strange

  going’s-on at a space station orbiting Mars.

  A romantic comedy with a terrifying difference!

  Get it for free, here –

  http://rtgreen.net/ballistic-offer