And he loved her for it.
Relenting, and letting a few deep breaths course through him, Lee sank backwards onto his bed. He rested his hands loosely atop his stomach, staring up at the ceiling while he let the muscles rise and fall.
“How do I explain this one?”
Breathing through the second pulse, Kat’s raging heartbeat so tangible that he could feel it like his own, he sat up again, stomach muscles clenching as he leaned his elbows against his thighs.
“It’s like…” he began, shaking his head in his hands. Why was this so hard to get into words. With each clear thought he drummed up, one born of anger and despair followed suit.
“It wasn’t enough.”
He lifted his head, staring into the paneled walls of another room. The truth of the idea reeled inside of him, like the cold side of a moon, exposing her face. “Destroying their ship. Claiming their mainframe, it wasn’t enough. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.”
“See what?” Kat asked. She still stood there, arms crossed over her chest, but her feet had paused their jittering.
“He’s going after Segura.”
Kat’s brow lowered, her arms going slack by her sides. “What do you mean. They disappeared, they fled. How do you know?” Whatever she’d expected, it wasn’t this.
“I just got our test results back from that last dark rays’ raid. They confirmed what I feared. He’s using their radiation signature again to try and track them down. He’s using us too, Kat, with all that sample matter we’ve been collecting.”
And he didn’t imagine the stroke of anger that crashed down over her face.
“He said something at our debriefing that day, too,” Lee said, remembering those harsh words the General had tossed out. “‘…It is a risk every single day radicals are left to experiment on our galaxy unattended.’ He plans to go after them.”
Lee scratched at the green plaid beneath his fingertips. He’d been so preoccupied with his own future that he’d missed what was blaring in their faces.
Zane hadn’t. Zane had had the forethought to question the General after their debriefing way back then.
And Levy—Lee wasn’t about to bring her name into this. Not for the guilt that he hadn’t thought of their friend in a number of weeks, and only today remembered her for the fact that she’d found resolution where he couldn’t.
But Lee? He’d been cautious, holding back from putting any weight on himself and Kat, all the while it was catching up tothem anyway. He’d allowed his excuses to become a crutch. One he’d leaned on for far too long. But the fact remained, he was here now. He still might be able to help them.
“They know something. Gaia, Elia—even General Narron himself—they all hinted at it. Something about his history, or his plans. Something worth destroying them over.” Lee shook his head as he thought it over. “General Narron has put years of resources into this—decades. He isn’t about to let all of that go to waste over one ‘rogue ship.’ He isn’t going to stop, no matter where the Council sided on whether to harness their research. No matter how much destruction lay in his wake. Gaia is a danger to those plans—her people are a threat. And as long as they are out there, he’s going to keep going after them.” Lee pictured the headlines in the articles they’d dug up, and the thousands of shadow market raids. The Raven, and the new, virtually invincible AAIR division now monitoring incoming supplies. General Narron had the entire system oiled to run like his personal machine. “He’ll find them again, too,” Lee murmured as that grim understanding settled into him. It was only a matter of time.
“What about Commander Blanche? She’s got a say with the council. How much power does she hold against him?” Kat asked softly.
“I don’t know.”
Lee pursed his lips as he thought over their options, and all they’d learned. The General had been around this for a long time. He’d had years to set his plans in motion, and years to harden his verdict.
But Segura had been aroundlonger.
He opened an arm up for her as Kat sank down onto the bed beside him, the orange blossom from her hair mingling with the smell from his soap as she curled into him. As he rested hischeek on her damp hair, soaking up the feel of her warm body next to him.
“So what do we do?” she asked, casting her pale grey eyes up towards him. And he almost kissed her for her sheer faith in him. But it wasn’t just faith in her eyes, it was the confidence, and the determination. The recognition and belief that together they really could do whatever it was they set their hearts upon.
And he did kiss her, then, brash and unyielding, and desperate as her lips moved with his. Never again would he let that pouting mouth go to waste.
“What do we do?” he repeated, still staring at the swelling curve of her bottom lip with wonder. “I believe it’s time we pay Nolan a little visit.”
CHAPTER 29: KAT
KAT STARED into the zagged cut double doors guarding the Command wing. Somehow they always seemed to end up here these days. And yet, no matter how many times she stood here, she always shrank at the thought of who might be residing on the other side.
She traced the seam while Lee made the official request into his hyperband for “Gamma Cadets and Squadron Leads Kat Hanneman and Leland Waters to speak with the Commander’s secretary, Nolan, as a representative of Commander Blanche.”
They honestly could have traipsed right through these doors with their super secret security clearances, shrinking worries aside. But Lee had thought better of it. Best reveal as limited information on their present predicament as possible until they knew exactly where they stood.
