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.
Chapter Ten
Esme
I’m doing this,reallydoing this. A part of me recognizes that my actions are crazy, yet I’m set upon the course and determined to do it regardless.
I slip out of the back of the medical cubicle and skirt around. If I want to get into the field, I need more information than I’m supplied via my own helmet. What I need is a soldier’s helmet.
I make my way along the back walls of the cubicles, listening for voices or the sounds of a healer at work. When I find quiet, I carefully pull the canvas aside so I can check inside. Most have healers or other medical personnel dealing with the injured, but through trial and error, I come upon exactly what I need. A soldier is out of commission, and although I sense his injuries have been healed, he’s unconscious. It happens sometimes. If the wounds are severe enough, they might sedate them anyway. In this case, I can sense his body has made the decision for him. The life-threatening wounds have been dealt with, and his system is overwhelmed. On a deep cellular level, yet more repairs are taking place.
His armor has been cut away and left in a pile on the floor. Beside it is his helmet. I slip inside, grab the helmet, and slip back out.
It must be five sizes too big, and I tighten the strap to the limit. Nobody’s going to pay that close attention during an operation. My armor will be fine, and at this stage, the combat healers will be in the field with their teams. I will pass a cursory glance.
There is a crack down the middle of the visor. But these things are damn near indestructible, designed to keep working no matter what. It flickers to life when I switch it on, albeit with a slightly distorted view. Radio chatter bombards my ears. It takes me several moments to realize what’s going on.
The Uncorrupted have landed a ship. Their focus will be on evacuating as many personnel as possible, along with research and prisoners in order of priority, depending on who they deem most valuable. A battle will take place as we try to block their retreat, rescuing as many of our people as we can in the process.
I rarely go to the front line. I can count on one hand the number of times it has happened. But I know what to expect, and when I emerge from the back of the medical tents, it’s into structured, if frantic, activity.
A steady stream of incoming wounded is being dragged, carried, or at times brought in on stretchers.
Triage healers are at the front, directing arrivals.
It goes against everything inside me to leave a place where I’m needed. Yet there’s something deeper driving me, a connection that’s been made to a man who needs me more.
I stick close to the edges, avoiding our soldiers, and using the crates and containers of our supplies as cover until there is no more cover left.
Move with purpose.I have every right to be where I am. Just a healer following instructions. So what if I’m on my own? They’re too busy to notice.
I exit the temporary base, taking off at a jog in the opposite direction from everyone else. This isn’t much of a plan. In fact, it’s nothing at all. There’s just this pull, guiding me toward him. Only, he’s so distant now that I can hardly feel him.
He won’t come back.At least he doesn’t believe that he will. He told me, not with his words, but with his eyes and the way he touched me… The hot intimacy said one thing—the chaste kiss to my lips before we parted, said another.“Stay here,”he said.“Don’t leave, no matter what you feel, understand? Disobey me and I’m going to be giving you an ass fucking you won’t forget… after I’ve brought a pretty pink blush to it under my belt.”
Oh, if only he would. I’d welcome anything and everything he might do to me.
“What are you doing here?”
The voice stops me in my tracks. “I’m to—I’m.”Get a grip, Esme. Act like you belong.“I’m to report to Ryker Sherwin.”
I mentally grimace. The only other two soldiers whose names I know are Zeb and Ethan Black. Mentioning either of them would be a really bad idea. I’m not convinced Ryker is a good choice, more it was the only one I could think of under pressure.
The visors are blacked out. He can’t see my face, and I can’t see his, just the tightening of his lips. But I can sense his emotions, though, the urgency of his order warring with his suspicions about me.
“I need to go,” I press.
His indecision thickens, but his commands are weighing him down, and he stabs his finger in the direction of the passageway leading out. “Follow the line between the buildings. He’s on thefrontline. But don’t go into their building without an escort. Ask someone to take you when you get to the end of the passage.”
He turns and jogs toward the temporary base.
I turn and head down the passage from which the sounds of battle emanate.
Adrenaline is already flooding my system, making me feel hyper and anxious as I come out onto a roadway congested with armored vehicles and soldiers. There, directly ahead of me, is Ethan Black talking to a soldier.
