Her grin told me he wasn’t only talking about the mission.
“The ship is inside. On the ground.” Zarren informed Chloe and the ReCon team. I glanced over my shoulder at his vid screens and watched Rukzi jump out of the ship and land in a crouch. He was moving forward, out of sight before the first Atlan had his boots on the ground. “Ruk, get your ass back with the others.”
“You do not command me, Prillon.”
“Fuck. I knew he was going to be a problem.” Zarren rubbed his brow but ignored the Hyperion and his bad attitude.
I kinda liked the guy. When I’d needed to get away from the fight, he’d been the one who noticed I was about to lose my shit. He’d picked me up and carried me to transport, taken us both back to the Atlans’ ship, and started pouring the wine.
Yes, definitely liked that one. Didn’t like the headache that seemed to be coming on like a freight train. Should have made sure to drink more water. Or stick one of their ReGen wands in my pocket.
Maybe I’d ask the S-Gen machine for one later. Right now, headache or not, I wasn’t leaving this room.
Oberon was down there. So was everyone else, but he was mine.
As much as Zarren was mine. Which was, technically, not at all.
“Level five clear. Moving to level four.”
“Keep your eyes open, I can’t scan that deep underground.” Zarren warned them and moved on. “Enzo, what’s your status?”
I stood up and moved to a seat closer to Zarren. He had monitors from every Atlan’s, Oberon’s and Bastion’s helmets, each perspective displayed on a separate screen.
I watched until someone looked at Oberon. He was safe. Unhurt. Moving.
I could breathe.
“This isn’t right.” Zarren voiced what I’d been feeling for hours. He activated his comm. “Enzo, Arcas, fall back.”
“Negative. Moving forward to the prison level.” Enzo’s voice came through clearly. He wasn’t leaving until they’d seen the prison cells for themselves.
“Fuck.”
Knowing their past as prisoners themselves, I understood. I reached out and put my hand on Zarren’s shoulder. The tension coming off him was so strong, I didn’t need a mating collar to feel his concern. “They need to see for themselves.”
“I don’t like it. There should be Hive Soldiers everywhere. Three Scouts on every entrance. Ten times this many drones.” He tapped his fingertips on his control panel. “They’re going to get themselves killed.”
Sacrifice the living for the dead?
I hoped not.
“Level four clear. No hostiles. I think they abandoned the base.” Seth and his ReCon team were moving through the outer sections, top to bottom, while Oberon and the Atlans worked from the inside, lower levels, moving up.
Theoretically, they would meet on the middle, grab any prisoners, and get the hell out of there.
Rukzi, who had reluctantly agreed to wear a small comm implant behind his ear, growled to the teams. “The human is right. I do not smell any recent life forms. They are not here. Their scent is several hours old.”
“Then where the fuck are they?” Zarren squinted at his screen, flipped through several others until he landed on the map of the base. The drawings that had started this whole thing.
I didn’t bother to study the layout. I was relieved no one was going to get hurt or killed.
I listened as the two teams cleared floor after floor, area after area. No resistance. No Hive at all.
After what felt like forever, Enzo said what I’d both hoped, and dreaded, hearing.
“Prison cells empty. Personal items remain. Female. Any prisoners they had are gone now.”
Oberon launched into a litany of curses, some of them Prillon words I’d never heard before. And I thought I’d heard them all.
