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“I’ll keep worrying until the alien tech is out of her.” Rexx glanced at Wren. “Has she ever said anything about what the Gente did to her when you were taken?”
Wren grimaced. “No, but they messed her up pretty bad. They had us in the cargo hold, but they took Daisy away for several hours. They only brought her back because she tried to kill one of them.”
“You see, she’s a fighter,” Striker said.
“Did they implant anything into you or Eden?” Rexx asked.
“No, they barely touched us,” Wren said. “It was only Daisy they took away. She didn’t mention any implant. And that was months ago. Surely, if she’d had it inside her all this time, it would have messed with her before now.”
“It could have been dormant or doing its creepy thing inside her until it got strong enough,” Striker said.
Wren nudged him with her hip. “You’re not being helpful. Maybe Daisy was ashamed of what happened to her. I wouldn’t be too comfortable talking about it if some alien probed me.”
“You get probed by an alien every night. You love it,” Striker said.
“Don’t be gross.” She smacked him on the arm, but amusement shone in her eyes.
Rexx looked away. Their happiness made him sick. It wasn’t that he didn’t want them to be happy, but it was like a knife in the gut seeing them together and knowing he could never have that with Daisy.
Everything felt wrong and screwed up.
“Hey, Angel’s got this.” Wren reached over and squeezed Rexx’s arm. “She always patches us up and fixes things when they go wrong. She’s the best at what she does. She’ll get this implant out of Daisy, and then she’ll be back to her usual self.”
Cleo came into the room. She lifted her chin and beckoned Rexx over.
He nodded at Striker and Wren before hurrying over to her. “Is it Daisy?”
“We need to talk. Come with me,” Cleo said. She turned and left the training room.
Rexx marched alongside her, tension sparking up his spine. “Has something happened to Daisy?”
“No, she’s stable. Angel’s still looking into the tech. The implant concerns her. It doesn’t look like Gente technology.” Cleo turned right and headed to the medical room.
Rexx growled. “But they were the ones who put it in her.”
“Most likely. But we know those jerks will work for anyone who’ll pay them enough. There’s another problem.” Cleo stopped outside the entrance to the medical room. “High Command has heard about this situation.”
“How the hell did that happen? Was it you?”
“Calm down. I told them nothing. An automatic alert triggers when a crew member has been compromised.”
“Daisy hasn’t been compromised.”
“Rexx, you aborted a mission because of her behavior. That suggests compromise. She wasn’t in control of what she was doing. That makes her a risk.”
“That’s bull. She’s not a risk.”
“High Command think otherwise.”
He ground his teeth together. “So, what happens next? High Command are sticklers for the rules.”
Cleo sighed and ran a hand through her short hair. “For now, Daisy is off active duty.”
“Okay, she’ll hate that, but it’s not so bad. Until the implant is out, she can work in the lab.”
“High Command also want Daisy off the team. They want her isolated and studied.”
“Studied! What the fuck? No way. She’s not a prisoner.”
