by Meli Raine
Twitches at the corner of her right eye tell me she's struggling with how much I do or do not know. Even I won't mention Josephs in front of Kina. She may be trustworthy, but I'm not stupid. Information is useful when used judiciously.
Kina doesn't know or care who Josephs is.
Yet.
But Angelica sure as hell does.
“Why are you out here?” Kina demands of her, moving into her personal space, an aggressive stance so different from her earlier form.
Angelica's pissed and doesn't take it well, moving one hand up in an odd gesture. “Training exercises.”
I go on alert.
A crash of a person through the bushes behind Kina comes a split-second before she's down on the ground, a pile of legs and arms and black clothing all I can see.
No way is this happening again.
One of the guys has his hand between them, Kina clawing at his face, the location of his hand making it clear exactly what his goal is.
It's like he thinks she's the training body.
Grabbing him by the collar, I start pulling only to get a hard knee to the kidney from behind. Spellbinding pain shoots through me, complete with fireworks in my retinas, but I hold fast, yanking the guy off her as I'm sucker punched to the throat.
By Angelica.
She's surprisingly hard to kick out of the way, but I manage, moving her a few feet out of the sphere of danger for the handful of seconds I need to knock the asshole in my hand unconscious.
Instead of coming after me, his buddy goes after Kina, who is now crouched on the balls of her feet, face blank, completely elevated.
Good.
Drawing on experience and muscle memory, I wait, letting her take the control she already has and use it to her advantage. The guy I threw against a tree is out cold. Angelica, on the other hand, is facing me now, knife in her hand, blood on her lip.
“You weren't supposed to be here.”
“Well, I am, sweetheart. Come and get me.”
The word sweetheart shocks her, but she recovers, slow and careful in her approach. If her goal is to keep me distracted, it's working.
“Good work, Kina,” she says to her as Kina fends off an attack from guy number two. “You lured him here.”
Now it's my turn to be shocked.
If it's true, I'm a sucker.
If it isn't true, Angelica's really here to kill us both.
But the guy attacking Kina now has his belt undone. This isn't an unapproved kill mission. This is something else.
At least for the guy.
Angelica lunges. I lift my knee up and toss her like a beach ball on a blanket throw, her weight easy to turn against her. The knife slices against my shoulder, tearing cloth but not hitting skin. As she drops, I kick her wrist as hard as I can, hearing something pop as she shrieks. When she lands, her ass falls on a rock that juts out between tree roots, a guttural grunt making it clear I don't have to worry about her.
“C'mon,” Guy number two says. “Let me get the points.”
This is what I thought it was.
Grinning but flat-eyed, Kina lets him get close enough to grab her, making me waver. Is this a sick game? What the hell is going on?
And then I see it.
Moonlight on metal.
Cutting through our thick tactical black outfits and piercing a guy's scrotum without causing permanent damage is a skill set no operative is ever technically taught, but Kina manages to do it. In the aftermath, when all is said and done, he'll still be able to reproduce.
But the healing phase won't be fun.
A look of utter astonishment on his face tells me I'm right. As he falls, slumped beside her, she holds up Angelica's knife, the tip clean as his hands cover his crotch and he howls.
And then she says to me, the gleam in her eyes coming back as she leaves her dissociated state, “I would like a new assignment within Stateless, please.”
Chapter 22
Kina
* * *
“What in the hell did you do to Mason?” Angelica says, standing up behind Callum, holding her wrist at a bizarre angle. “With my knife!”
I don't answer her. Copper fills my mouth. My arms and legs are like sausages stuffed with air. I elevated, I know. What just happened is murky, a series of images like snapshots from an old-time camera, thrown on the floor and re-arranged out of order, some half hidden by others.
“What the hell did Mason and this other piece of shit do to her? And how about we talk about what you did to me?” Callum screams back.
“It was a training exercise!” Angelica counters. She turns to me and yells, “This is all your fault! Go back to your babies and wait for punishment.”
“They were trying to rape her!”
“It's not rape, Callum,” she says in a withering voice. “It's – ”
I run.
Leaves and branches scratch my legs, and my pants are twisted at my waist, slowing me down. Bare feet scrape against the forest floor, and the cool air chills my skin, pointing out all my scratches.
This hasn't happened in years.
Years.
Not since the last person used me as a training body and I –
I don't want to think about that right now. Not now.
Not ever.
Trying to understand what just happened back there is useless. Clearly, Angelica is out for me. For Callum. I've spent nine years making myself into the human equivalent of a grey rock with her, but his re-appearance has brought her rage for me back.
I have no idea why she had it in the first place.
My apartment feels different when I reach it, the soles of my feet covered in filth that mars the clean floor. Long gone is Jay's sweet presence. Tip-toeing out into the hall, I seek out the babies. Sometimes, I sit in their room, quiet in a rocking chair that does not move, and I just listen to them breathe while they sleep.
It is the best sedative I've ever used.
It's no surprise that I find Callum in the hall, motioning me toward the door.
I shake my head.
He gestures more vehemently.
“No,” I hiss.
“I'll wake them all up.”
“You wouldn't.”
One eyebrow lifts.
Try me, that eyebrow says.
I don't make a sound as I acquiesce, moving to the end of the hall by the exterior door.
“She's gunning for you,” he whispers.
“You, too. Why?”
“I have no idea. You?”
I shake my head. “She's left me alone for nine years.”
“Something about Romeo's death triggered this,” he whispers. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
“My room.”
A zing of emotion chokes me, making it hard to swallow. “What?”
“If she's after you, she'll come here. You want the babies around an uncontrolled operative?”
Now the zing turns to pure panic.
“No! Absolutely not!”
His hand takes mine, squeezing. “Then come with me. Now.”
Logic wins. I follow him into the night. The security guards give us pointed, hostile looks. They are loyal to Angelica, I know.
Callum gives them hard looks, not shying away. Romeo wouldn't have, either, If Callum really is Romeo's heir, how far will he go to fill those shoes?
We head back to his small room. He gestures to the only chair. I sit. He hands me a bottled water. In silence, we hydrate, both thinking, minds churning.
Air charging.
“Are we just waiting?” I finally ask.
“No. We're thinking.”
“Do we need a plan?”
“How do we plan when we don't know her objectives?”
“Callum, her objective was pretty damn clear. To kill you. Probably me.”
“She called it a training exercise. She told me you're The Body.”
“You believe her?”
“Should I?”
“Did
you believe her when she told me I was good at luring you out there for that ambush?”
“It wasn't an ambush. Those guys weren't more than sixteen and they weren't there to kill. They were there for points. Conquest points.”
I go numb. It would be easy to elevate right now, but I don't. I fight the urge.
This is something I have to face fully.
“Yes.”
“Why, Kina?” His voice goes low, soft, quiet in a compassionate way I've never heard. There's something else, though.
Something deadly.
Once I tell him the truth, there's no going back.
And I think he knows the truth already.
“Since the moment you came back, you've acted like you didn't know my mission.”
“I didn't.”
The look I give him is a test.
“I didn't. They told me you were on assignment in The Field.”
“And you uncritically believed them?”
“Romeo told me that. Why would he lie? It's Angelica who is tainted.”
“Is she really?”
He nods. “On so many levels. But even for her, this is beyond the pale.”
“Oh.”
“Kina – why did Angelica have them in Woods on a training exercise? There's only one thing that means.”
“I know.”
“Then tell me.”
“Why? You've already guessed.”
Shame roars through me, pinpricks of it breaking blood vessels on my skin, turning me into a red tide that drowns me. A red tide made of a million little red tail lights driving away from me, nine years ago.
“Kina, it can't be. Right?”
“Don't do this.”
“Do what?”
“Make me tell you. You're the one who left.”
“What do you mean?”
“Minutes after the car drove away with you and Glen, Angelica told me my mission. Both of my missions.”
He looks sick.
Good. Because I feel sick.
I sigh and just say it. “I worked in the nursery. Now I run it. And the night you and Glen left, I was made The Body.”
“No!”
With a shaking finger, I stand and point. “You don't get to judge me. You left!”
“I was assigned to leave! They made me! I had no choice! None of us had any choice, Kina. You know that.”
“I know that better than you! I know that in my flesh and bones, Callum.”
A grunt of surprise — of shock? — is all he gives me.
“So stop making me feel like staying behind was somehow my fault.”
My fingers itch to slap him.
“I – I never thought that.”
“Then why do you keep commenting that you can't believe all that I am is a babysitter?” I ask, unable to keep the bitterness from my tone.
“Because I feel guilty, Kina. Did it ever occur to you that I'm filled with my own overflowing bucket of shame? I can't stand to have you look at me. What did I do, Kina? How could I have let them do this to you? In every way possible I failed you.” He punches the door. “Every.” Bam. “Fucking.” Bam. “Way.”
Bam.
“Stop!” I grab his elbow, the muscles so tight it's like holding a copper pipe. “You didn't fail me! No one failed me!”
“I did. Stateless did.”
“Yes,” I say, throwing all calculation to the wind. “The leaders did. I should be out there. I should be with Glen.”
His eyes meet mine.
“Most of all, though, I should be with you.”
Chapter 23
Callum
* * *
“Me? Why the hell would you want to be with me? I couldn't protect you.”
“No one could. And technically, no one should. It was my mission.”
“Was?”
“Yes.” Her eyes go unfocused, her gaze in the distance. “That's the first time in years – almost nine, in fact – that someone's tried to use me that way.”
“But you said – ”
“I was The Body. For a few months. Technically, I am still a body. It's on the books. But no one touches me anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Because I killed the third trainee who tried.”
“That's a huge violation of the rules!”
“No,” she argues, eyes forthright, words clipped and practiced. “I revealed a weakness in a trainee. He wasn't fit for Stateless if he couldn't survive me.”
“You were allowed to do that?”
“No one ordered me not to fight back. In fact, it was Romeo who gave me express permission to do so for all future attacks.”
“Romeo?”
“Yes.” A lightbulb goes off in her eyes. “That may be why.”
“Why what?”
“He's dead. Angelica took her chance before a new leader could be installed.”
“I'm ending the entire practice of using a Body.”
“Janice will be pleased.”
“Janice?”
“When trainees were afraid to use me, Angelica named Janice. Why do you sound so surprised? There was always a training body when you were a trainee. One male, one female. We were all told to practice on them.”
“Did you?”
“No. It wasn't a requirement. What about you?”
I shake my head. “I never felt it was necessary. They made us do plenty to become familiar with sexual skills.”
The words feel like a lead sculpture resting in my stomach.
Pensive, she looks up at the ceiling, hands in her lap.
“You said that it all stopped at the third trainee to attack you. You killed him. How?”
“Cyanide.”
“Again?”
Her grin is ferocious. “When Romeo gave it to me for The Test, he handed me two capsules.”
“You never told me that.”
“We're taught never to tell anyone everything.”
“You saved it? The extra one?”
She nods.
“The trainee? You kissed him and killed him that way?”
“It's in my file. Look it up, Callum.” She looks away. “You're one of the leaders now. You'll have full access.”
Full access.
The door flies open. I’m on my feet, my gun’s trigger cocked and the barrel pointed at Angelica, who stands in the doorway with hers pointed.
At Kina.
“Smith wants to see you, Callum,” she says coldly, eyes on her forehead.
“Put the gun down.”
“No.”
“Angelica, that's a direct order.”
“You're disobeying my order and Smith's order.”
“You no longer have authority over me. PUT THE GUN DOWN NOW OR I SHOOT.”
“You shoot and I'll pull the trigger on her,” she spits.
“She's collateral damage,” I say with a shrug.
Then I pull the trigger.
I miss Angelica by a quarter inch, on purpose. The bullet lodges in a support beam.
Kina ducks, reflexes fast enough, because Angelica's bluffing.
The security guys behind her rush into the room. I kick one so hard in the face a tooth goes flying, scraping against Kina’s arm. Then I trap Angelica on the ground, the action driven by instinct, seamless.
Pure pleasure.
“HALT!” shouts a man's voice, the accent strong and clear.
Svetnu.
He spots Kina first. He smiles.
“You.”
Finger crooked, he ignores Angelica on her face on the floor, my knee in her back, a knife in one hand and a gun in the other to hold off the two security guards.
“You. Tell me why you are here.”
I look at her. She returns the gaze, helpless.
My only weapon is the truth.
So is Kina’s.
“I'm here because Angelica blocked me nine years ago from going into the field with my sister, Glen. You made that choice, sir,” she says softly.
Hi
s smile widens. “Yes. We did.”
“We?”
“A cohort of decision makers.” His attention diverts to me. “And your knee? Why is it there?”
“Training exercise,” Angelica and I say in unison.
“Always working. So committed to the cause, you two,” Svetnu says drily, winking at me as if I'm in on some joke. “This is why I chose Callum as Romeo's successor.”
Angelica sucks all the air in the room through her teeth. I smirk down at her.
“Thank you, sir,” I says robotically.
“Angelica has always been a bit too...”
Face tipped up as I loosen my hold on her, she looks at the doctor like an errant child waiting to hear a rebuke.
“Obsessed.”
“Sir?” she squeaks.
“You are very attached to outcomes.”
“Sir! I am attached to fulfilling the mission!”
“Which is an attachment, my dear. Remember? Attachment is the problem. If you are under the age of four, it is an asset.” He tips an imaginary hat to Kina. “Four and older, it is a liability. We just learned that the hard way today.”
“Sir?” I ask.
“Romeo. He was too obsessed with a woman he wrongly shot. Trying to kill the president's illegitimate daughter and shooting her look-a-like friend was a function of overeagerness to score points.” He sighs. “Our training needs to be recalibrated. People become too attached to external reward systems.”
A steady glare that would incinerate Kina bounces from Angelica to me, her head twisted, his dominant.
“I'm here to take Callum in for questioning,” she insists, gesturing to the men with guns who flank the doorway, looking to Svetnu for instructions.
“I believe he's turned the tables,” Svetnu says. “Hard to question someone when they are pinning your spine to the ground like an entomologist.”
A memory from nine years ago, of Jason's body staked to the tree by three strategically-placed arrows, makes my stomach clench.
“Sir,” Angelica squeals. “He is the one who is dangerous!”
“To what, my dear? Your shoulder sockets?”
“To Stateless? He's a double agent, sir. We have proof.”
I snort, then look at Kina. She averts her eyes.
Just then, the television screen clicks over to a scene. President Bosworth is in a press room at the White House with an urgent announcement, addressing reporters, Glen at his side.