Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Zeb
We sweep the building amid smoke, screams, blood splatters, and the casualties of war. None of them are ours yet, but it’s not a given that it will stay that way, and the fight is far from over. Hemmed in and surrounded on all sides, like any cornered rats, they’re not going down without a fight.
The fake business above is a vast warehouse with rows and rows of parts. Too many places for them to hide. None of our prisoners are going to be up here. There would be too much risk that they might escape. They’re going to be deep underground, where Jenda still is—we hope.
We use grenades and mop up whatever is left.
Two of their ships have already taken off, but they were likely decoys, testing us to see how well we had secured the facility. Jenda is too valuable. She won’t be risked without a clear exit plan.
Our communicators flare to life. “The enemy has launched a ground assault.”
There it is: her exit plan. It’s about to get hot.
The power’s been cut, and the elevators are out, so it’s just dark stone stairs leading us down that we take at a run, stopping to deal with the occasional pockets of resistance where they’ve left disposable grunts to slow us down.
As we reach the first cells and the labs, it’s time for me to get ahead of the curve. I give Ethan a nod and break away from the team. Finding the access to the air shaft marked on my visor display, I set a small explosive.
The door pops, and I slip inside. “I’m through,” I say for Ethan’s ears only. “Going dark.”
His confirmation comes through.
A button on my armor turns it from Empire black to Uncorrupted gray. The helmet is a giveaway, so is my weapon. I ditch both.
Then I climb, forcing oxygen and energy into muscles at an accelerated rate no other human could match.
Esme
They carry me to one of the curtained cubicles and lay me down.
Someone is speaking. I hear my name and feel a hand brushing the hair from my face.
“Shock,” someone murmurs. “She’s crashing. We need to get something into her, fast.”
I struggle weakly. “No… I’m fine. I’m fine!” They think I’ve overexerted myself, too much healing, too much trauma. Only it’s not the healing, nor is it the kind of trauma they believe it is.
No one listens.
The hiss of a drug dispenser wakes up my mind to the danger and the intentions of those around me—they’re going to sedate me. While it’s unlikely to be strong enough to knock me out, it will be enough to keep me pliant and manageable.
Out of the way as they deal with the real emergencies, and not a helpless healer.
It’ll go on my report, I realize distantly as I struggle.
I’ll be marked as a liability, taken out of rotation, and shunted out somewhere out of the way.
Maybe mated off to a wealthy civilian alpha, because that is what happens to healers when they’re no use in the war.
Someone I don’t know… someone I don’t love.
“No!” I sit up too fast, sway, and catch myself on the edge of the medical cot.
The healer frowns, her hand hovering near my arm, the dispenser waiting to administer the drug. “I can’t help you with this.” Her tone is disapproving. Dealing with me is taking her away from people with real needs. “You need rest. You’re overextended. You’re in no condition—”
“I said I’m fine,” I snap. It must get through enough to make her hesitate. “It wasn’t the healing. It was…” I need to be careful not to say too much. “My controller had an injury. It’s minor, but it just shocked me, that’s all.”
“What is he doing in the field? Her brows pull together in a frown. “Your kind is too sensitive. We can’t have you distracted.”
Her words carry a hint of disdain. That she is at least five years younger than me only adds to the slight. I force myself upright and push off the cot. She’s right, I’m too sensitive, only not in the way she thinks.
My feet hit the ground, and I only wobble a little. “See? I’m okay.” I paste on a shaky smile. “I’ll take a moment and come out to help.”
“Cassie!”
The call distracts her. “Coming.” She turns back to me. “We don’t have time to deal with you. I won’t hesitate to sedate you if it happens again.”
Point made, no need to be a bitch. I nod.
She strides off to deal with the real emergencies, which I clearly am not one of.
As the curtain falls back into place, I rub absently at my temple and pace back and forth.
I need to follow him. It’s a compulsion so strong, it obliterates every other consideration, every other need. They will throw the book at me for this, remove me from rotation, and likely send me for psychiatric evaluations, none of which I want.
Only, I don’t care about any of that.
He’s out there, somewhere, doing something so dangerous he likely won’t come back.
Nothing else matters.
Nothing else is real beyond I know that I love him, that I need him; that even after so short a time, and as impossible as it seems, he is the one, the only one.
What I’m thinking of doing is dangerous beyond measure.
And I’m going to do it anyway.
Zeb
The climb brings me out into a tunnel that carries air, water, and electricity the length of the substructure. It’s dark and probably hasn’t seen a human for centuries, but my enhanced vision and augmented physique allow me to make use of something lost and forgotten.
Their ship has landed. I may not be in communications anymore, but I know how this will go. Above ground, our sides will be engaged in battle. But the Uncorrupted are on the run. They’ll grab everything they can, everyone important, get them back to the base ship, and flee.
Jenda will be on that ship, and so will I.
When I emerge onto the surface, I’m met with the sounds of war.
The buzz of automatic weapons. The whistle and the pound of explosives.
I skirt around the edges. Getting myself dirty and bloody on the twisted, broken ground.
Stumbling out of the shadows and merging with their soldiers as they board the Uncorrupted ship.
Inside, it’s the kind of organized chaos that makes it easy for me to slip through undetected.
But now that I’m in, I need to locate my target and fast—no point in hanging around if I don’t have to. Get in, get this done, and get back out again before they take off.
The corridors are narrow and dimly lit. The ship thrums and vibrates right down to my bones.
The passage of alphas—their alphas—triggers the change. My body morphs, rearranging molecules, warping something pure into something genetically abhorrent.
Fuck, I don’t want to spend too long in the form. I can already feel it twisting me up inside. The irony is not lost upon me. They called themselves ‘uncorrupted’, and yet this thing they’ve done with the Copper Virus is inherently wrong.
I slip into a side corridor looking for a good candidate. An officer rushing from a doorway on my right is just what I want. I walk past him as he rushes in the other direction, pivot, follow, and take him in a chokehold before dragging him back into the room.
The room is empty, just banks of monitors showing the status of the battle taking place.
My fingers are around his throat as I take him down onto the floor.
He tries to bat my hands away, but with my enhanced genetics, he doesn’t have a chance.
His face is turning red, and his eyes are wide as he sees me changing…
Changing into him…. It’s fucking excruciating changing this fast. The tissues of my face feel like they’re boiling.
But he’s of a comparable build. The cloning process doesn’t have to be perfect, just enough facial features to pass a cursory glance.
The last of his breath leaves him, and as his eyes roll back, the process is complete.
I’m breathing heavily and sweating as I heave myself up. Then I’m at the monitors, searching through the information.
There she is.
Got you, bitch.
I glance at the officer on the floor. Can’t afford to leave him there like that, can’t afford the risk. On the desk is a heavy-duty, field-issue data tablet. I heft it in my hand, testing the weight before I bring it down over his face… again and again until he’s nothing but a bloody pulp.
It won’t take them long to work out who he is, but it might buy me some time, and by then, I need to be off this ship… or someone else.
I’ll cross that bridge when I need to. With the route to Jenda locked in my mind, I’m out the door and hunting my target down.