Chapter 7 #2
I had not told anyone what I was, what I’d been.
Not even Asmoded, but it was clear that these details had been a little too close to home for him.
He’d connected the dots. I bared my teeth at him, but I knew he’d thrown me in the deep end because I would have just denied it if he’d asked me in private.
Sneaky, sneaky snake that he was, he’d set me up so I had no choice but to provide answers.
I’d never been more tempted than I was right then to disappoint my superior officer, to sabotage a mission before it started.
What the hell did I care if this human killed a couple of innocent Rummicaron anyway?
And then Ysa’s face appeared in my mind’s eye, and I knew I couldn’t. I couldn’t let her down.
Snarling, I threw myself back into my chair and pinned Asmoded with a glare.
Hell, I even raised my hand and flipped him off for good measure.
They might not know what that single finger meant around here, but rude hand gestures were pretty universal; they got the meaning.
Perhaps this silver-skinned, elfin-looking Eoin even knew its precise meaning, because he snickered.
Come to think of it, he looked damn similar to a Terafin, a species from the Alpha Quadrant, except those guys were supposed to be gold, not silver.
“The Shadow Unit is real,” I said, and then I admitted the one thing out loud I had sworn I’d never admit.
“I know, because I am one of them. Or rather… I used to be.” I flexed my hand, the one that, not that long ago, had suffered a nasty chemical burn that would have crippled a normal human.
“He’s that strong and fast because the UAR military genetically modified him, possibly enhanced him with cybernetics, and gave him healing capabilities through nanobots. ”
“So you know this bastard? You served with him?” Aramon remarked with a kind of glee only an agent of chaos like him could feel right now, as if he liked the idea that I’d served with a murderous death machine.
Since his brother was a murderous death machine, that was not really a surprise.
Frankly, the label applied to most in this room, myself included.
Even morally gray as most of us were, we didn’t go around killing people in classrooms and hospital wards, though.
“His name means nothing to me,” I said. The Shadow Unit was not really a unit so much as small cells of operatives the UAR deployed for secret missions.
Assassinations were our specialty, kill on command, no questions asked.
We only knew the guys in our cell and our handler, often a commanding officer who had survived the harsh life in the ranks of the unit long enough to climb to that level.
The kind of guys with absolutely no moral compass at all.
I’d almost climbed to that level when I’d been sent with the Praetor to the Zeta Quadrant.
Sent to sell out thousands of humans, condemning them to a life of slavery.
This man, Eric Regaen, I’d never met him, but looking at the details Mitnick had projected above the table, the stats only made sense one way.
He was like me. Staring into the face of this soldier was a bit like staring into a mirror, and it made something deeply uncomfortable stir in my belly.
He looked soulless, dead—a man who had nothing left to care about in the world.
A man driven so far over the edge that he’d plunged straight into darkness.
The evil that the UAR had pumped into his veins was the same as what ran through mine.
Only the stability of the Varaktoom’s crew and the familiarity of the missions they ran had kept me close enough to the edge that I hadn’t fallen entirely.
I could have been Eric. I still could be Eric.
With a bitter taste on my tongue, I began outlining each of the standard enhancements I’d received—from the processor in my brain that allowed me to interface at basic levels with certain electronic devices, or communicate directly with nearby Shadow Unit males, to the nanobots in my veins.
It was no surprise to me when Mitnick wanted to study my implant and compare it to his own, much more advanced one.
Also unsurprising was the instant call to draw some of my blood so the nanobots could be studied.
The gladiator engineer, Da’vi, was especially eager to do so, ready to draw blood right here with his knife if need be.
“Nobody is cutting into my male,” Asmoded snarled over the hubbub.
Everyone fell silent, but to my surprise, something warm began to simmer in my chest. I usually did not take kindly to any kind of claim, but Asmoded…
Ah, damn it, there was no finer example of loyalty than our captain.
In his blazing, furious golden eyes, I could see only that he sought to protect me.
Me. I laughed. I couldn’t believe that I’d laugh on the heels of such chaos, but I did.
It was a belly laugh too, full of real mirth I couldn’t recall ever feeling before.
Perhaps long ago, in a past when my big sister still existed.
“Dravion already has samples,” I said into the stunned silence that followed.
“You’re welcome to those, what does it matter anyway?
” So what if studying the nanobots meant they could devise a weapon against me as well as Eric?
If I went off the rails even further, they might need it.
Of course, I’d always taken comfort in knowing the Sineater was far more powerful than I was.
If I did start killing at random, like this Eric guy was, the Sineater would kill me without blinking, and without losing any sleep over it.