arbitrate (daynight) (20 page)

Bailey’s in a defensive stance, arms crossed over her chest and a scowl on her face. She’s dressed in a camo tank top and short shorts, and I have to restrain a moan because man, she looks hot—even with the scowl. Yeah, I know. The Exilers are facing permanent extermination, and I’m appreciating my angry ex?-girlfriend with my eyes. I run my eyes from her messy blonde hair down to her bare feet, lingering on her lips, beautiful curves, and long legs. Instead of being happy that I’m still attracted to her, she looks even more pissed off.
 

I anticipate her right hook this time and step back out of the way in plenty of time. “If you want a fight, Brad Darcton’s bringing a whopper of one to you and all the other Exilers—although I’m not sure your right hook will do much good against his bombs, missiles, chemical weapons, and the rest of his sizable arsenal. Our deal…” I point between the two of us, “… is not important right now. Go. Get. Doc.”

Her eyes go wide as she processes the information. She leans in to Adam in an affectionate manner, stroking his arm and whispering into his ear. When she’s done with her “message,” she places a lingering kiss on his cheek. I guess that’s her way of telling me that I’ve been replaced. Either that or it’s one of her warped “tests” to see if I’ll fight for her. Adam runs off—hopefully to go get Doc, and I’m left alone with Bailey in this claustrophobic “back room” of the main cave. We’ve always used the space for meetings because it affords as much privacy as you can find in Exile, but the air is foul and stifling, the ceiling low and uneven.

“Adam will gather the Exiler Board. He’s
very
efficient and reliable, so I’d guess we have mere minutes before they return. You have that much time to explain to me where the hell you’ve been for the last few months.”

I roll my eyes and decide to toy with her. I know she wants me to ask about Adam, but I’m not taking her bait. “I’ve been on an extended vacation in Hawaii. I needed time to think.”

“Yeah right. Because you’re
such
a thinker. Where. Were. You. Really?”

“Gee Bailey, what happened to your awesome sense of humor? Truth be told…I haven’t had a single day of down time since I left Heart. I was on Earth tracking my baby’s kidnapper. I found the kidnapper and then tracked his employer. The employer—a very not dead Brad Darcton—kidnapped
me
and then used my son to blackmail me into bringing a message back to the Ten. He decided that I did such a good job of playing his errand boy that he should insist I become his full time lackey. In my rare spare time, I’ve been helping uncover what Brad’s plans are on Thera.”

She puts her hands on her hips and puffs out her chest—which should make her look like the angry wench she is but only serves to emphasize her nice rack. “And you were too busy to get me word that you were
alive?
Or even if you didn’t care to see me…perhaps you could have checked in to see how the efforts were going.”

I clench my teeth. “Well,
dear,
as much as I’d have liked to…until a couple weeks ago I was stuck on Earth and Mr. Rapid Transportation System, Jax, wasn’t exactly making himself available to me given that I’d nearly gotten Kira killed.”

Crap. I realize my mistake after it’s too late. “Kira is
alive
?
And
your son is alive. No wonder you haven’t been around. I’m sure you’ve got quite the happy family unit going. How
is
it being a daddy?”

“Yes, she’s alive. Yes, the baby’s alive. No, I’m not part of a happy family unit. And I wouldn’t know what it’s like to be a father. I’ve held the kid once. I’m not
with
Kira.” I chuckle a bit because the picture Bailey’s imagining is complete fiction. “I think she’s with Jax? Maybe Ethan? I don’t know. We don’t really talk.”
 

Adam conveniently shows up with Doc Daryn and a dozen other men—some who I know and others I’ve never seen before.

Doc grabs me into a strong embrace. “Blake. It has been too long. What’s the word?”

“War.” I gesture for everyone to sit on the hard, hot floor of the cave. Then I proceed to catch everyone up on the chilling happenings of the SCI—Brad Darcton being alive, his “terrorist” attacks on Earth, the coup of the Ten, and the weapons build-up in Industrial City.

After my brief, Doc is the first to speak. “I still think negotiating for a permanent peace treaty and recognition of the Exiler Nation is the way to go.”

I hate to disagree with the old man, but seeing is believing and after what I’ve seen…it’s clear that the time for peaceful negotiations is past. I wipe the sweat that has settled on my brow and then pull out my camera, dislodge the storage device, and shove it into my pocket tablet.
 

“Does this look like a government who is willing to negotiate with a bunch of their ex-patriots?” When the footage of both a chemical weapons lab and an assembly line making shrapnel-heavy dirty bombs doesn’t move Doc, I bring up footage of the results of Brad’s attacks with similar weapons on Earth—nothing like a lot of death and dismemberment to drive my point home.

“Well, what do you recommend?” Doc asks, completely horrified but also exasperated by what I showed him.

Since I first witnessed “The Brad Show” in Military City, that very question has been on my mind. I just don’t have enough current data. “How many have officially aligned with the unofficial Exiler Nation? And where is everyone congregated?”

Adam speaks up. “I’ve been running the logistics for the Gathering. Bailey—with help—has spread the word amongst Second Chancers in each city.”
Tell me something I don’t know, Adam. I went with Bailey to most of the cities.
He continues, “I have teams positioned near each exit for the Exiled. They direct new Exilers to our camps. We have six main camps—three on the West Continent, three on the East. This is the only camp consisting of caves—the rest use tents for shelter. Each camp has over ten thousand broken into companies of fifty each. It’s easier to get the supply drops to six locations rather than hundreds—not that the SCI has been regular about the drops lately, which means that pirating has started back up again. Because most people are on foot, we can’t get everyone to a central location. We’ve managed to get some horse-drawn wagons going, but with the huge Second Chancer exoduses, there haven’t been enough wagons to handle the loads.”

Fantastic. In my absence, they’ve created six easy targets for Brad. It should be obvious, but I don’t think reality is registering. I can’t blame them. They thought they were covered by the temporary peace treaty. “The people in those camps are sitting ducks. Brad could annihilate them with his increase in troops alone—or with a few well-targeted missiles or bombs.”

Adam catches on quickly. “Okay genius, so the question remains—what do you recommend?”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. Where are my promised reinforcements? Joshua is better at this big picture stuff than I am. My father trained me to infiltrate the SCI and impact them through individual missions—not to lead sixty-thousand untrained Exiler civilians in an impossible-to-win war.
 

“Well, Adam, given my advanced degree in military strategy…” I say sarcastically. “There are several decisions that need to be made. On the defensive front, we need to decide whether to leave the camps as is or to have each captain disperse with their charges. Dispersing would make it less worth their while to waste big weapons but would leave each company vulnerable to attack by Military City troops. And that’s even assuming that Brad Darcton doesn’t have his guys planted in every camp reporting back to him. We start moving people, and it could move up Brad’s plans to attack.

“On the offensive front, we need to decide how we can damage their efforts. Do we try to take out their weapons facility? Deploy their own weapons against them? Or do we go ahead with the things we’ve been talking about for the last year? Take out the Garden City mega-portal? Or maybe better…use the mega-portal to get to Military City and take out
their
mega-portal? I’m just brainstorming here…I’m not going to pretend to know the answers. There are huge risks and a certain level of impossibility to go along with all the options.”

We argue pros and cons of each strategy. Jax finally shows with an injured Joshua in tow. Joshua suggests that we go visit each camp to assess their vulnerability and ability to act out whatever orders are given. Bailey and Adam insist on coming. Fabulous. Joshua and Adam hate each other. Bailey is with Adam and furious with me. And Jax…is…well…Jax—impatient, controlling, and constantly maintains an air of superiority.

Somehow I don’t think this Theran tour is going to be as fun as the last one I went on with Bailey. Just thinking about it brings color to my face. I look up and she’s glaring at me despite the fact that she’s practically mauling Adam. Yeah, this will suck big time.

Six months prior: Fish City, Thera

Our pet Arbiter, Paul
—a thirty-something “friend of the Christo family”—dropped us in the laundry facility in Fish City at 0400 hours with strict instructions to meet him by the southern packaging plant at 0600 hours. We’d already hit Food City, Information City West, and Farm City earlier in the night.
 

A huge smile broke across Bailey’s face. “Thank the Gads. He finally managed to leave us by the
clean
uniforms. There’s no way I could put on another filthy outfit.” I quickly stripped off the Farm City overalls I was still in, so that I could watch Bailey do a full strip tease for me out of hers. I’m not sure how she’d managed to get hold of the lacy bra and thong, but who would I be to look a gift horse in the mouth? Why not mix a little pleasure with business? I lived in Exile in wretched conditions—so I learned to look for and appreciate the bright spots in any given day. “You see anything you like?” she asked me.

“I think you already know the answer to that…since I got the same show and you got the same reaction in the last three cities.” I smirked at her before shoving her up against the door and claiming her mouth with mine. My hands wandered, as did hers. Unfortunately, we heard some activity out in the hall, reminding us that we were here on business. So I did what any intelligent guy would do in the same situation—sacrificed a hand to grab my Taser in case those in the hall decided to come in the supply room. I was pleased at how well my multitasking skills were improving.

Once phase one of our Fish City visit was complete, we slipped out of the supply room dressed in white, lightweight spandex-like bodysuits and flexible waterproof boots that Bailey deemed a “fashion catastrophe.” Despite having lived on Thera for about a year, Bailey failed to accept that she’d permanently left behind high fashion upon her death on Earth. In fact, she held to the belief that the Arbiters could reverse the crossover and let her return to Earth—the exact reason that memories were typically erased.

We mimicked the actions of others in the building, lowering our heads and moving purposefully outdoors to the fish farm. On the exterior, Fish City was built entirely of cement mixed with shells that glimmered in the full spectrum lighting. Individual residences—small pods—surrounded the fish farm. Instead of joining the workers, we traversed the edge of the farm and went towards a cluster of pod homes. Our work here required privacy, something we couldn’t achieve amongst hundreds of people fishing.

It always went down about the same way. I’d ask someone, “We’re looking for that lady who moved to town recently? I feel like such an idiot, but I can’t remember her name. And Cindy here promised to drop by today to say hello. Do you know where we might find her?” A newcomer would almost always be a Second Chancer. A new Second Chancer would be more receptive to our message. A female was much more likely to be at home during the night. And women…well, they love their gossip.

That night, our spiel led us to a pod door with a starfish painted on it. Supposedly, “the young pregnant couple who moved in a few months back” lived there. We knocked and were both a little shocked at who answered.

She’d gained a healthy amount of weight with her pregnancy but still looked good. Her long, dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her eyes plastered with smoky color. Her Cleave, one of my least favorite people on the planet, was home as well. He looked like the same cocky bastard who’d drugged Kira back in Garden City but reeked of fish. I couldn’t imagine the former football star working the farms or gutting fish, but I also had to admit that I loved that he had to do it. They lived a simple life in a primitive pod. I could see Karma’s hand in it.

Before they could get our names out—which would quickly alert the SCI to our presence here—I held my finger to my lips. They ushered us in and invited us to take two chairs across from their couch. I mentally laughed that their entire place was painted blue and decorated with fish. A large shark leered at me from behind their whale-shaped couch.
 

“Bri, Tristan. You remember us, right? Cindy and Brian? Cindy’s been dying to talk to Bri about her pregnancy.” I said this despite her pregnancy being the very last thing on Thera I wanted to discuss. She could have very well be carrying Kira’s and my child.

“Of course. How could we forget?” Bri gave a close-mouthed grimace. She looked at Bailey. “Last time I saw
you
was on your way out of town.”

Bailey looked around their humble, studio-sized house and smiled. “I just
love
your home. It’s so…
quaint
.”

Tristan gave us a curious stare. “I can’t remember. How’d you two end up together again?”

“Luck,” Bailey quickly responded as she unsubtly ran a hand up my leg and squeezed my upper thigh.
 

Bri laughed causing her large belly to bounce up and down. “Is that what you’d call it,
Brian
?”

I didn’t dare contradict Bailey, so I changed the subject. “Tristan, I wanted to run something by you while Bri and Bailey talk babies.”

Bailey lodged her first question to Bri. “So tell me how that—” She held her arms out in a basketball sized formation and then added, “—is going to fit through that.” Bailey then created a small opening in one hand and pointed to Bri’s pelvic area with the other. “I mean, does it rip you to shreds in the process, making it so you can never have sex again or what?”