Uttering something midway between a cough and a chuckle, Rodriquez responded innocently, “Yes, sir, captain sir!”
“When you hit the ten mile marker, lay down fire.”
Slipping his arm around her waist, Dax walked Lena across the hanger deck and then guided her up the tube to the bridge. Rodriguez threw a grin over his shoulder as they reached the deck. “Top to bottom? Or bottom to top?”
“Top to bottom,” Dax responded promptly.
“You heard the man,” Rodriguez said into his headset. “Take it down.”
As they watched the vid screen, two missiles shot from somewhere beneath their view and straight toward the building they’d just left. Another pair followed closely behind the first two, and then a half a dozen more, spaced as the first were. The first two impacted with the top of the building, demolishing it instantly. The crowd below the building scattered for cover. The second two hit three floors below, blasting debris in every direction and the top settled.
“We’ve got company,” Rodriguez announced as the third and fourth pair impacted with the building.
“Then it’s time to go,” Dax said. “They sub orbital. Take us out beyond their range.”
He glanced down at Lena. “Are you all right?”
She couldn’t help but smile. “Yes.”
Catching her hand, he led her back to the tube. “I think you should let Mel have a look at you.”
She thought it over. “No, really, I’m all right.”
He frowned, but he didn’t press her any further. Without another word, he started down the tube. Lena watched him a moment and climbed after him.
He stepped off when he reached the crew level, slipping an arm around her waist and walking with her to his cabin.
“Is it over?” Lena wondered out loud, amazed that in the end, it had been so easy.
Dax glanced at her. “I doubt we’re completely out of the woods yet. We’ll have to track down his network and shut it down.”
When they’d reached his cabin, Lena moved into his arms, wrapping her arms around his waist. He stroked her back soothingly. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Mmmhmm.”
“I shouldn’t have let you talk me in to letting you go in there.”
She pulled away to look up at him. “I needed to go. Besides, you wouldn’t have gotten past the front door.”
He shrugged, but didn’t argue the point. Instead he pulled her close again. “We could’ve found an assassin--a trained assassin.”
“I really am going to be ok with this,” Lena murmured. “I’m not nearly as delicate as you and Nigel seem to think.”
“Maybe not, baby girl, but killing is something a lot of people have a problem with, no matter the provocation.”
“Morris is dead because of that man. Hundreds, maybe thousands more than that. All I feel is relief that he can’t do that to anybody else.”
His arms tightened around her. “I’m thinking about retiring,” he said tentatively.
Lena pulled away and looked up at his face. “Seriously?”
“Very seriously.”
A smile curled her lips. “Where are we retiring to?”
He stared at her for several moments and finally swallowed thickly. “You’d go with me?”
“Where ever,” she said promptly.
He drew in a ragged breath. “I love you, Lena Marie.”
“I know.”
He chuckled. “Just I know?”
“I already told you I loved you,” she reminded him with a smile. “And you said, ‘move your ass, baby girl!’ That’s when I knew you loved me, too.”
The End
