48. Chapter 48
Chapter forty-eight
-Bryce-
I kept my hands raised, blinking the sweat out of my eyes. Could he still see reason, or was he past that point? I glanced down briefly to where the small light on Chief’s dangling earpiece indicated it was still connected, transmitting everything he said directly to the rest of the team. Reason or no, I needed to keep him talking.
“I think you need to reassess the situation, Chief.” I gestured to Kitari. “You can’t take Kitari. You have no shuttle, nowhere to go. The Aldar are going to punish you for what you’ve done. This is pointless. Just make it easier on yourself and let him go.”
“I always complete my mission.” He lunged for Kitari again and wrapped his arm around Kitari’s neck. Kitari stopped trying to bite him when Chief pressed the blaster to his temple. I gritted my teeth and stayed in my place. “I don’t know how this bond works, but maybe if I kill him, you’ll die too.” He turned his head enough to spit onto the ground; blood mixed with saliva. “Now, I don’t want to do that. I need at least one of you alive. Although if I do kill you both, Clay is still an option.”
“No, he isn’t. It’s over, Chief. Just let him go.”
There was a buzz overhead and we looked up; a drone was flying above the trees. One of ours? Kitari took the opportunity, trying to catch Chief’s blaster hand. Chief shook him and dug the muzzle harder into Kitari’s temple, forcing his head back the other way.
“I should have known you weren’t up to the task, running straight into the arms of the enemy as soon as we landed. You were never a good soldier, though I guess I shouldn’t be pissed. You made it easier to get a specimen, brought it straight to me. Now I have both of you, and you know what? It was just a mission before, but now I’m going to enjoy watching them slice you apart to find your secrets.”
My stomach turned at the acid in his voice.
“I should have finished the job on K-Lash-4.”
That hit me like a right hook out of nowhere. I blinked at him, entirely lost. “What?”
“You were always taking liberties. This is a fucking job, this is important, not a holiday or a fucking sightseeing tour. You needed bringing back into line, before the men started copying you.”
What was he talking about? My brain wouldn’t let me put two and two together.
“You’re always fucking around, Gunner. You act like we’re on some sort of family picnic, frolicking around space, braiding each other’s hair, having a fun time. Smelling the flowers and stroking all the animals like some kind of fucking tourist. We’re not out here to have fun, for fuck’s sake. You needed some consequences, so I gave you some.”
I felt like the ground was falling away from underneath me. “What did you do?”
“I let you face the consequences of your own actions. I sent you down that path. I could have warned you off, but then you wouldn’t learn. So I had to leave you to it, let you get trapped, make sure the team wouldn’t be coming to help you.”
“You…took my leg?”
“I didn’t know what would happen, exactly, just that if you survived, you’d learn a lesson. And you did; life isn’t all sunshine and roses and having a laugh. It’s hard and dirty and brutal.”
It wasn’t an accident. I’d blamed myself all this time, but it wasn’t my fault. Chief had made it all happen. I knew now what he was really like, he’d shown his true colors in that pod when he threatened me. I knew already. So it shouldn’t have hurt, shouldn’t have sent pain like a bullet shooting through my chest. The man who I’d always seen as a father had hurt me, for no better reason than he disapproved of how I saw the world. For just being myself.
I couldn’t find anything to say.
Chief spat again. “You had the potential to be a great soldier, but you fucked it up. And now you’re going to help me find another ship, and you’re going to come with me and actually achieve something with your miserable little life, or I’m going to shoot this savage through the head and see what happens. You got that, son?”
There was movement in the trees behind Chief. I glared at him.
“No, you’re not,” I said. “And don’t fucking call me ‘son.’”
Then I turned. “Did you get all that, Clyde?”
Figures stepped out behind Chief, all in black gear and led by Clyde.
Chief jerked around.
Clyde nodded and tapped his earpiece. “Aye, loud and clear, and so did the rest of the boys.”
“I’m glad you made it down safely,” I said, still with my hands raised.
“MacKenzie managed to circle back and set us down. We had a rough landing, but everyone’s ok. A bit banged up, but nothing that can’t be fixed.”
“Arrest him,” Chief snapped, gesturing at me with his weapon.
None of the men moved. A few looked at each other, and O’Neill licked his lips nervously, a deep gash on his cheek. Clyde stared dead-on with cold resolution.
“We heard everything, Chief,” he said. “We don’t think—“
“You don’t think, you follow orders, soldier.” Chief ground his teeth.
“I think we’re done following your orders. Bryce is one of us, and we don’t take kindly to one of our own getting betrayed. See, we have a code, stronger than anything else, and you broke it.”
The team moved forward. Chief swung his blaster up and fired at them, but Kitari struggled in his grip, and the shot went wide. Then the men were on him and his weapon was wrenched out of his hands.
I ran forward to where Kitari had dropped to the ground.
“Are you alright? How hurt are you?”
I took his face in my hands, and he hissed as pain flared between us. He was a mess, cut all over and caked in blood. If the Aldar didn’t kill Chief, then I would.
Rand, eyeing Kitari warily, handed me his keys and I worked on the bonds around Kitari’s wrists and ankles. The instant he was free, I was in his arms, so tight I could barely breathe.
“Thank the stars you are alright,” he said. “But you were reckless.”
I kissed him. It tasted coppery, but I didn’t care. “There was no way I wasn’t going to keep coming for you. You’re stuck with me.”
I felt his lips curve into a smile.
There was a shout, a bang.
I turned in time to see Chief, now free, standing over O’Neill by the cliff edge. Chief snatched the weapon from O’Neill’s hands, brought it up, and took aim.
I was up and running before I knew what was happening. I threw myself, colliding with him hard, just as the shot went off. It hit the ground next to Kitari, throwing up dirt.
We fell backwards, carried by my momentum.
The last thing I heard was Kitari shouting as we tumbled over the cliff’s edge.