Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
NIKKOV
For three days, I’ve followed Noel, watched her every move, noted the people she’s talked to both at the toy drop-offs and when she returns to her home at night.
She’d given me the impression she had very little credits and struggled to pay for food and other necessities.
What I’ve seen is a female who lives in a new building with plenty of credits to buy what she needs. .. and more.
When she’s not working at the toy drive, she spends time with friends eating and drinking in local establishments.
And her clothing… vekk, she’s gorgeous no matter what she wears, but the clothing is pristine, custom-made on a world where most people struggle to pay for necessities.
She doesn’t wear the simple sweaters and clingy pants I’ve seen at the warehouse, but short dresses, thick warm coats, and shoes with tiny soles that this world associates with wealth.
She has an abundance of credits… from selling blasters for the Brotherhood.
I do not know this female as I thought I did. And drekk me, but there may be no way to save her.
Except to walk away, tell Galactic Intelligence that the leads were false and we must seek information elsewhere.
Protecting her means betraying who I am and the people I’m sworn to protect.
My control slips and I give in to the frustration and anger when I slam my fist against a wall.
Pain travels down my hand to my arm, a welcome sensation as it wakes me to my path.
Even if she refuses to recognize who I am to her, Noelle is my sholani, and that means I must do whatever it takes to protect her, even from my mission.
Before I can consider how to do that, four males I do not recognize leave the warehouse, carrying sacks of toys intended for the younglings. They hurry away, watching the shadows as they escape with their bounty.
A moment later, Noelle slinks into the shadows and follows.
They will see her as a threat.
Quickly, I pursue her, taking care not to alert the thieves to her or my presence, at least not until I reach Noelle.
They board a boat on The Allegheny River, where a fifth man waits at the stern, hand resting on a mooring line.
He doesn’t see my sholani approach from behind until it’s too late.
With one punch to the man’s face, he drops.
She catches the unconscious male and silently sets him on the dock, then boards and takes out two more men in similar fashion.
Noelle can take care of herself, but her skills surpass what someone would gain merely by surviving Earth’s post-occupation struggles. She has training. Precise. Deadly.
This is how the Brotherhood will reclaim Earth.
Not through the blasters they steal from some hidden breach in Galactic intelligence’s security, but through their people.
Innocents who believe they are fighting for something good.
The Brotherhood preys on those drowning in need or pain, twisting their beliefs with promises of a better future, manipulating them until they can no longer see what they’ve become.
Her brother. Noelle lost her brother to violence. That was the wound the Brotherhood exploited to indoctrinate her. I’ve seen strong people break for far less.
“Greg?” one of the remaining two males calls out. When his team doesn’t answer, he and the other male circle the boat, closing in on my female.
I race from beneath the cover of the overhead bridge and am about to launch myself at the males, knock them both in the water, when Noelle does precisely that.
She dodges the male’s blow and uses the force of his attack to send him flying over the side of the boat.
The splash is the last thing I hear before I dodge behind a pallet on the dock.
She’s already knocked the last male unconscious.
In as much silence as she arrived, Noelle roots through the sacks and removes three small boxes, all wrapped in brown paper with red and white striped symbols on them… the same as the candy she and Donna handed out to the younglings who came for toys.
When my sholani leaves with the three boxes, abandoning the sacks of toys, my heart sinks.
This is not the female I fell for, even before realizing she is my sholani.
She’s been using the children, the toys, and The Black and Gold Elves as her cover to move blaster parts for the Brotherhood.
The truth is, she’s been using everyone… including me.