Chapter 35 #2
My mind moved too fast, was too full, as I watched Kaleo and Rumi.
Damien had been right all along. He was convinced Kaleo was stepping out on Burdon, that he was up to something.
Rumi had told him to stop fishing. She had known exactly who he was with.
Her. I couldn’t accept it, couldn’t believe it.
But moments and words pelted me. The truth had been there the entire time.
Kaleo had never asked Rumi to call him unit commander.
How disheveled Rumi had been the morning before we headed here.
Patrick had said she had run off. Had she run to Kaleo?
The pain on Kaleo’s face as we stood in the holding box in Haven as someone had moved next to me.
Had it been Rumi? Run fast. I assumed he had meant the Force member who had taken off.
Had he been urging Rumi on? The dots on the map Rumi had watched obsessively.
Had all the night shifts been a way to see him?
Had it all been for Kaleo? I shifted through memories in search of sense.
Not unless I feel I have something to gain from it…I’m trying to figure out if you’re lying to us, him, or yourself.
Rumi’s own words ran around my mind. She had always defended her unit.
She loved Patrick, it was obvious…wasn’t it?
After all her brutal honesty, who was she lying to?
But what of the files of the deceased she had asked me to find?
She had said to keep them from the rest of the unit.
Had she kept them from Kaleo? Had I unknowingly helped them? I felt sick.
“I don’t know if we should do that, Ikaika; it’ll slow us down,” Rumi suggested. “Our plan only works if everyone cooperates.”
Our plan. We had been played by one of our own.
“So he’s Ikaika to you?” Levi shot at her as he leaned against a crate of supplies, his face carefully blank.
They ignored him. “Our plan is shit now. You blew it,” Kaleo told her. His hands grabbed hers, his voice tender in a way I had never heard. “It’s all out.”
“I’m sorry,” Rumi whispered.
“Don’t be; it was too much to carry for too long,” Kaleo assured her before turning to the other three. “Helmets off, but you’re allowed to shoot anyone who tries to hurt you.”
“Kaleo,” Tristian warned, his shoulders tense.
“Have you ever not said the same?” Kaleo demanded, walking toward us. Damien and Isla stood on the other side of Tristian, their jewelry so at odds with the moment. “Your little Angel still has her gun out,” Kaleo informed Tristian, jerking his head in my direction.
Tristian turned toward me. I hadn’t given up my position, refusing to leave us vulnerable.
“I won’t hurt anyone in the unit,” Rumi told me, taking her place beside Kaleo.
“Anyone else,” Isla bit out. “You’ve already hurt Patrick.”
“And everyone else,” Damien muttered under his breath, tugging sapphire earrings off and pocketing them.
“Anyone else,” Rumi confirmed. She didn’t deny the blow she had dealt, the honesty she had withheld from us delivering each wound.
“It’s okay, Sasha,” Tristian told me, his eyes locking on mine. I lowered my weapon, clicking on the safety as I drifted toward the others.
“Let’s make it quick. We need to move if you’d like to stay alive, Hades. Time is against us. Helmets off,” Kaleo called out.
The three behind him all began removing them. The first revealed a man with brown hair, heavily streaked with gray, his face round, a cut across his cheek.
“Peterson,” Tristian marked the man, who nodded at him. He belonged to Unit Twelve. Rumi had told us he had suffered a broken face shield, that it had cut him. Had she actually seen the report, or had Kaleo told her?
“But you helped us with the radios,” Damien exclaimed. “Henderson said you found them.”
“We found them,” Peterson said, gesturing to his group.
The next was a woman. As she removed her helmet, a sheet of blond hair tumbled down. Somehow, not matted, her appearance was stunning despite hunting us down. I had never seen her before. Her icy blue eyes winked at us.
“Lawrence,” Tristian greeted.
“Congrats on finding the supplies. This will help so many people in Haven,” the woman said, smiling as if we weren’t having a standoff.
The third person hesitated. Levi sighed heavily. “Take it off, Abbott.”
Damien and Isla whipped their heads toward the third person, who removed her helmet, shaking her braids as she faced us, her eyes on Levi.
“I know your stance,” Levi muttered, looking away from her, taking another blow unfazed. “You’re still putting too much weight on your back foot.”
“But you got us out of Haven,” Isla interjected, pointing at Kaleo. “He took you down for helping us.”
“He did because it was the backup plan, then let me go so I could keep helping you.”
The air that was but moments ago filled with such levity and joy felt heavy. I watched yet again as hope slipped out of our grasp.
“You’ve been planning this all along, the radios, Abbott,” Damien whispered.
Tristian sighed heavily; a soul-deep tiredness laced the sound.
“Let’s begin,” Tristian said, crossing his arms, his stance wide. A fighting stance. Rumi opened her mouth. “I’m not ready—I do not want to hear from you, Sato. Not now. I was talking to Kaleo.”
Rumi’s mouth closed, pain washing over her face.
“You have a spy in your midst, Hades,” Kaleo started. It seemed like an odd place to start.
“We fucking know. She’s standing next to you,” Damien exclaimed, removing more jewelry, his pockets bulging.
“She isn’t a spy, not like this. Burdon had intel on your unit that she shouldn’t have,” Kaleo told us. “Your inner workings and dynamics.”
“No one in my unit would betray one another,” Tristian stated, his eyes on Rumi.
“Burdon tell you all the info after you fucked her? Bedroom confessions?” Levi shot at Kaleo; I shifted toward him, ready to stop him if I needed to or maybe to help him…
I didn’t know. “Speaking of which, how does this work between you two? You share him, Rumi? You’re content with Burdon’s leftovers? ”
Kaleo had told me people talk in bed. That he liked the information. Was he telling the truth?
Kaleo stiffened, looking away, something like suffering upon his face. Rumi charged in front of him.
“You won’t speak about him like that again, am I clear?” Rumi whispered in a voice that promised violence. “Your best friend did the same thing. When Hayes does it, it’s a sacrifice, but when Ikaika does the same, it warrants judgment. He was your friend once. He was more,” she fumed.
“Ikaiki stopped being my friend the moment he tried to take Hayes out on Burdon’s orders. That piece of shit pulled a knife on his own commander,” Levi declared lethally. “He turned against us, his own unit. Just like you. Birds of a feather, it would seem.”
“He didn’t,” Rumi retorted, defending Kaleo.
“I did pull a knife on my own unit,” Kaleo confessed, a hand reaching out to grab Rumi. She looked back at him, her silent nature shed for something vicious. Kaleo held her fierceness, the heated look in his eyes.
“Ku’uipo, it’s okay,” Kaleo said, reassuring Rumi before addressing Tristian and Levi. “I pulled a knife on the Angels, but I didn’t turn against you.”
Tristian’s face was blank. There was no warmth to his voice. “Explain. I’m growing tired of this.”
“I was going for Balakin. I overheard a conversation in Haven before that mission. It didn’t sit right, Burdon being sick. It didn’t make sense. She and Conti had been fine on patrol the night before. Suddenly Conti was in the Ward and Burdon was the one to take her?”
Wilma closed her eyes against the words. “They were always at each other’s throats. I think Conti figured out the plan and Burdon silenced her.”
“And you didn’t think to tell us?” Levi asked, his face cold.
“I did try to tell you, and you told me I was overthinking it,” Kaleo claimed. “Tristian, you wouldn’t even listen to your oldest friend about Burdon. Would you have heard me out?”
No one spoke, exposing the truth.
“I didn’t think so. Who was in the cot next to you, Levi? Who agreed to be Balakin’s partner for the mission? It wasn’t to team up with him. I was watching him. Who offered to take the second shift that night? Balakin did. Who took it instead?” Kaleo asked.
“Balakin was next to Levi, I remember that. But you ran off after Henderson got Abbott out. You didn’t help us with the others,” Tristian retorted.
“You were trying to kill me. Did you want me to try to talk to you at that moment? I know what you’re like in those moments, Hades. I didn’t choose the fill-ins; that was Burdon,” Kaleo said gruffly. “I didn’t try to take down Henderson or Abbott as they ran back without suits.”
Tristian’s head swung to Wilma. “He’s telling the truth. He didn’t approach us. I approached him moons later. I’ll never rest until I get justice against Burdon. Conti was my best friend and Burdon murdered her. And she took what was yours, Tristian. I want revenge.”
“Finally, something we have in common,” Levi shot at her.
Wilma marched forward, her braid swinging.
“Yet you boxed me out. I was going for my knife and then nothing. Someone knocked me out. I woke up being carried by Henderson. When I sought you out after you got back, you shut me out like I had done something wrong. I lost my unit, my best friend, everything.” Wilma spat at Levi.
“We don’t have time for this fight. I want you to explain how this situation came to be,” Tristian said.
“I have figured out some parts; Rumi informed us Lyssa would be distracted the night we left. You and Lyssa came running in half-dressed. I have enough imagination to figure out how to keep her attention elsewhere.”
Rumi tensed next to Kaleo. “Correct.”
“Who interrupted?” Tristian asked. “Who gave our actions away?”
“Some grunt in Unit Three,” Kaleo told us. “It’s always random cadets from One to Four that bring her this information. They’re never the same.”