Ages in Oblivion Thrown: Book One of the Sleep Trilogy (34 page)

“Niall?”

“They
told us you were killed in a training accident.” Leif struggled to
keep a poker face. Josh and Wallace both watched him with nervous
anticipation. Besides Leif, only Wallace had ever met Maeve’s
brother, shortly before he’d shipped off to basic training. Leif
looked over at them, mouthing,
“It’s him.”

“I would think that
you’d have learned to stop trusting that sort of thing by now.”
Niall, or whoever he was, continued to chuckle in that
infuriatingly condescending way. “Even funnier, that none of you
ever pieced anything together.”

“What are we talking
about?” Leif looked back to Maeve. Trickles of perspiration ran
down her temple.

“Ah, come now, Leif, you
still haven’t gotten a clue? How tiresome. I was recruited, just as
you were…oh, but not by the simpering government spooks who
snatched you all up. No. Can’t guess yet?”

“Screw this. You’re the
guy walking around as Robert Warden these days…that’s good enough
for me.” Leif raised his rifle again, ready to fire. In one swift
movement, both Maeve and Warden reacted. She moved to push Leif
aside, as Warden pulled his own weapon from behind the desk.
Gunfire erupted into chaos, and the single light was extinguished.
Darkness and deafening quiet followed in its wake.

“Leif? Maeve?” Josh felt
around in the blackness. A pained grunt was his reply.

“I’m hit. Maeve is gone.
I think Warden, or Niall, he took off, and she
followed.”

Wallace produced chem
lights, popping them so they cast a red illumination over the
scene. Leif lay on the floor, holding his solar plexus. Maeve was
indeed no longer with them. Josh moved into action, his days as a
corpsman coming back to guide him.

“Good lord, what the
hell is he using for rounds?” Josh was staring at a ragged hole in
his friend’s midsection.

“Felt like a frigging
bowling ball.” Leif let his head fall back. This was not how he’d
foreseen things going, not by a long shot.

“Stay with me, man.
We’re not going out like this.” Josh looked up at Wallace. “You’d
better try to figure out where they went. I’m going to get him down
to the beach and put on the beacon.”

“They might not be here
for hours. You think he’ll hold?”

“Yeah. He’ll be fine.”
They both knew this was a lie.

“I’m going to try to
disengage her. If I read what he was saying correctly, he’s
probably got somebody incoming.”

“We’re pretty well hosed
if that’s the case.”

“Yeah, well, I’d rather
try to ride it out with her out of the equation. She’ll only keep
going until we’re all dead, otherwise.”

“I thought that was the
point of all this.” Josh laughed hoarsely.

“Maybe it’s time to
change the parameters.” Wallace put a hand on Leif’s shoulder.
“Don’t go anywhere, man.” He picked up his own rifle, and nodded as
Josh handed him a preloaded hypodermic. It was a healthy dose of
tranquilizer, enough to take down someone fifty pounds heavier than
Maeve.

Hopefully, it would be
enough.

۞

Bijul had left the others behind.
She was en route to the island, about twenty minutes out.
Hopefully, it was not too late. She switched on the autopilot and
pulled the heavy rounds out of the storage lockers. They were
large, and she had a difficult time loading them into the upper
chambers on her own. It was meant to be a two-person
job.

She had never deliberately killed
without orders before. It was a weird sensation. Not a welcome one,
either. Her heart pounded as she flew around flight paths, avoiding
detecting as she’d been trained to do. The plan was simple. Blow
the house to pieces if they were still in it. That was easy to
claim as collateral damage.

Other than that, she wasn’t sure
what the hell she’d do.

The minutes slipped away, until
she found herself staring at a beach. She frowned. Two life signs
were out there. The house was empty. She could see one figure
standing, waving arms in the low light. Damn…how had she been
spotted? Swallowing hard, she scoped out a landing site, and picked
up her sidearm.

Acknowledgements:

This if for all the people who
have encouraged me directly or not so directly through the
years:

My husband, who always thinks I’m
talented and pretty, even when I don’t.

My parents, who put up with a lot
of youthful nonsense from me (but I was never that much trouble,
let’s be clear!), and let me fall on my face now and
then.

My kids, who simultaneously saved
my sanity and demolished it. Writing with purpose is purely because
of them. They remind me to see the world through others’ eyes, that
we don’t all think alike, and to keep fighting, even when it seems
a losing battle.

Friends, both
near and far, who have read my writing. Even though I suspect some
of you might be a bit biased, I truly appreciate all the
encouragement. And yes, you keep me working, because I can expect
anticipatory inquiries as to when I’ll be done with the
next
thing.

Other writers who have amazed my
senses and influenced me to be a better writer. Most of them have
no idea who I am (or they have gone from this world), but I can
certainly thank Susan Henderson for all her kind words, and for her
excellent debut novel. It was a breath of fresh contemplation to
read Up From the Blue so close to finishing this.

And to my tia and tio, who took me
on a voyage to another world when I was young and foolish. The
journey that year started me on this one…into the stars and
beyond.