“How so?”
He reached around and tugged at his pant leg. “This stiff fabric crawls into dark places it shouldn’t… if you know what I mean, and after our thong conversation a few weeks ago, I know that you do. Dreadful really. I don’t comprehend how they stand it and fight. Then again, it’s probably what incites them. Nothing about this drab uniform is comfortable. I would fight, too, if forced to wear it. If for no other reason than to get my butt out of it.” He
gestured to the blaster at his side. “And this thing only shoots light beams. I was afraid to even attempt to grab a real one. My luck, I’d blow off my leg. Or at least a toe. Probably the one I need for balance. Or worse yet, another part of my anatomy that I’d miss even more.”
She laughed again at his dissertation. He carried on in a way that strangely reminded her of Annalise. But in his borrowed uniform, no one would ever guess that he was gay. Not that many people ever did. It was actually quite comical to watch women come on to him in his restaurant.
“Just look like your normal self and you’ll be fine… but don’t reach for the toy.”
Ture put the safety strap over the toy blaster. “I will do my best for you. Now, what exactly are we doing?”
“The impossible.”
“Good.” He wrinkled his nose. “I haven’t done that in a while. I can definitely use an exercise in futility. How considerate of you to think of me.”
She let out an amused “heh” at him. “By the way, if we live through this, there’s someone I
have
to introduce you to.”
Ture cocked one haughty eyebrow. “If he’s your delicious, but highly insane lover, I think I’ll pass. I so don’t want to deal with that kind of drama. Thank you very much.”
“Not Darling. You would like him though, I promise.”
He made a noise of profound disagreement.
Biting her lip, she debated the sanity of doing this… again. The last few days had been agonizing as she went back and forth on whether or not she should even think about attempting to contact her soldiers who seemed hell-bent on ending their world.
Talk about insanity… Whoever their new leader was, he wasn’t thinking clearly. And he definitely hadn’t considered the repercussions for his actions.
You can’t run now, Z. You’re doing this for Darling.
She couldn’t let herself forget that.
Please, let this work.
She didn’t know of another way out.
With a breath for courage, she led Ture away from the restaurant’s ruins and down three blocks until she reached the “secret” entrance for the Resistance offices. To an outside observer, it appeared to be a law office. And there were actually lawyers who subleased offices from them. But if you went to the back lifts from the street level, and punched in the right code, it would take you deep into the basement where they worked.
As they entered the building, she had no idea how far they’d get before Resistance security stopped them. But she was going to try.
For once though, there was no security on the door. How weird…
She didn’t stop until she reached the lifts. Then, to her complete shock, the control panel accepted her old access code and handprint.
This can’t be good…
Why wouldn’t they have changed it?
Nervous, she reached down to touch the new tricom Darling had given her to keep her safe while all hell broke loose around them.
His ultimate sign of trust, and one that had let her know he’d meant what he said about not holding the past against her anymore.
Ture leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Should you be able to get in?”
“No,” she whispered back, trying not to be too rude. It was sad when a civ knew more about military protocol than the current Resistance leader. “Whoever Hector is, he’s an idiot.”
For one thing, especially if they really thought she was being held against her will and tortured, their offices should have been moved. That would have been her first action after they were
attacked by the Sentella. Then
all
of her codes should have been blocked, not just her online access.
Who would have ever thought she’d be grateful for stupid?
The doors opened to a hallway that was even more familiar to her than the one in her apartment flat.
A weird feeling tickled her stomach as she stepped out and glanced around. This building… this light gray hall had once been her home. In fact, she’d spent most of the last eight years right here. Night and day.
This
had been her life.
She’d never thought to leave it.
And as she stood there, ghosts from her past haunted her. She heard the voices of her dead friends. Saw images of Darling dressed in the full black battle gear of Kere, walking by her side as they discussed how best to irritate his uncle.
It was just down the hall from here that he’d first made love to her…
Gods, how she missed him.
But the one memory that burned brightest and hardest was the one of Darling being dragged away from the hangar…
In that moment, she felt like a stranger here. Like she didn’t belong anymore.
She was no longer the woman who’d been so determined to bring down the Cruel family. Yes, she still wanted to save and protect her people. She still wanted them to be free of those who would exploit or harm them.
But now she knew that the best way to achieve that would be with Darling as their governor.
Ture placed his hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
Not really. But she didn’t want him to know that. “Yeah. I’m just a little concerned that we’ve made it this far and no one’s greeted us. We should have been swarmed the moment we came in.”
No sooner had the words left her lips than a shout rang out, followed by a red-tinged blast that narrowly missed her face.
“Stop!”
She froze instantly and held her hands out so that the man could see she wasn’t a threat. Ture followed suit.
“Put your weapons down!”
Zarya smiled as she finally recognized the angry voice snarling orders at her. “Ferin? Is that you?”
He hesitated before he answered. “Zarya?”
“Yeah. It’s me.”
Still he didn’t come out from his cover. “What are you doing here? And who is that with you?”
“It’s Ture. A friend of mine. And I thought you guys wanted me back. Was I wrong?”
“You can’t trust her. She’s been brainwashed by our enemies.”
She didn’t recognize the second man’s voice. It was a deep, guttural tone—the accent native to the western part of the empire. Was he the mysterious Hector?
“No one’s brainwashed me.” She took a step forward.
Another blast came within inches of her face.
She stopped moving instantly, but what her attacker didn’t know was that his shots weren’t scaring her. They were pissing her off.
“You shoot to kill. Not to warn.”
Her father’s voice was loud and clear in her head. But today, she couldn’t listen to him. Instead, she had a psycho to disarm.
“Are you Hector?”
“I’m the Resistance leader now,” he said without answering her question directly. “
You
abandoned us.” The venom in that tone had to come from personal betrayal. Nothing else made sense. A stranger shouldn’t be so hostile toward her.
And yet, she still couldn’t place his voice.
“Who are you?” she tried again, holding her arms up over her head to let them know that she posed them no threat.
At first she didn’t think she’d get an answer.
Then, out of the darkness emerged the last person she’d ever expected to see again.
Pip.
For a full minute, her emotions paralyzed her. Shock. Anger. And a hatred so bitter, she could taste it. She wanted to claw his eyes out over what he’d put Darling through.
But all that being said, he looked like someone had already tried to kill him.
No. Rather he looked like they’d succeeded.
A vicious scar ran over his left cheekbone and the jagged, horrific one across his throat must be why his voice sounded the way it did. It appeared Darling had stabbed him right below the Adam’s apple, then ripped the knife across his entire neck. How Pip had survived such a savage attack, she couldn’t imagine.
Had she not seen what he’d done to Darling, she’d feel sorry for him. But there was nothing inside her except contempt. “Why are you calling yourself Hector?”
He narrowed his eyes on her. “It’s my real name. But you never bothered to learn that, did you? No. I was too far beneath you for you to notice me.”
Now that really made her mad. While she lacked Darling’s impressive recall with people’s names and background, it didn’t mean she didn’t care. “That’s not true. I never treated you that way. Ever.”
“Didn’t you? Clarion told me how you reamed him for taking the royal prick prisoner. You were siding with them from the very beginning. First chance you had, you went running right back to your inheritance, didn’t you, Princess? Once an aristo, always an
aristo. None of you care about anyone but yourselves.” He gestured at his face. “Look what the bastard did to me!”
Zarya had to struggle to keep herself calm, but it wasn’t easy. Not when she really wanted to gut him where he stood. Lowering her hands very slowly, she took a second to turn on the tricom… just in case Pip was as insane as she thought him to be. “What happened to you is awful. I admit that. But what was done to Darling—”
“Look at the way you use his name,” he sneered at the others who were still hidden by their cover. “You sicken me, you sorry fag whore!”
Oh that was it! How dare an animal like him judge
her
. “Then we’re even, Pip. The sight of you makes my skin crawl and it has nothing to do with your scars or your classification. You make a mockery of the uniform you wear. You’re the one who doesn’t believe in our cause. Instead, you use our colors so that you can practice your depravity under the guise of being normal when you’re not. No human being could do to another what you did to Darling.”
With a cry of outrage, he leveled his blaster at her. “That’s it, bitch. You’re dead.” He pulled the trigger.
The blast headed straight for her. Out of reflex, she jerked her hands up and cringed in expectation of being blasted. But just as it would have struck her, it hit the tricom’s force field. The shot broke apart and rebounded through the hallway, seeking out all the men in hiding.
It caught Pip straight in the chest and sent him flying into the wall behind him.
Whoa…
No wonder Darling had been so pissed off about his attack. It looked extremely painful to be hit by whatever it was the tricom generated.
Yet none of her soldiers moved or cried out. They were absolutely frozen.
“What did you do to them?” Ture asked in an awed tone.
“I didn’t. It’s a device that was made for me.” How fitting that it would be used against the ones who’d trapped Darling with it.
Ture let out a low whistle. “Well color me impressed, and please, don’t
ever
use that device against me. I’ll be a good boy, I promise.”
Not even Ture’s attempt at humor could quell her anger. Rather it mounted with every step she took closer to Pip and the others. They lay on the ground, eyes open. The only clue she had that they were still alive was the faint rise and fall of their chests as they breathed.
That made her think of Darling lying like that on the ground and what Pip and the others had done to him while he’d been helpless against them…
Wanting blood, she went to stand over Pip. “Now, if I were you standing over Darling after I’d paralyzed him, I’d be calling
your
beloved little sister a bitch, and I’d start bragging about how I shot that same defenseless young woman in the back and killed her while she was running away from me…’cause shooting a fleeing woman in the back is such a manly thing to do. Then, I’d strip you naked so that I could steal from you.”
She ground her teeth to staunch the bitter pain those words welled in her throat. With every syllable, she wanted vengeance for Lise and the agony that poor girl would have to cope with for the rest of her life because of Pip.
But most of all, it was Darling’s misery that drove her on. “And while you lay there helpless, staring at your sister, I’d cut your finger off and make you eat it. Then I’d put a torture device in your mouth and carve my name into your cheek.” She sneered at him. “You talk to me about
your
hatred. You don’t even know the meaning of that word. But I do. And I will not apologize for
being on the right side of this fight. And to clarify that for you, the right side is
not
yours, Pip. At no time has the Resistance
ever
been about cruelty.”
She glanced around at the others on the ground. “This organization was founded to stop a tyrant from abusing his power. Now let me reiterate that last bit slowly so that
you
can understand it. The Resistance was founded to stop a tyrant from abusing his power. We weren’t founded to become the tyrant who abuses others. How dare you do such a thing in my name. You have dishonored my father, and you have awakened the ugly side of
me
. Do not mistake my kindness for weakness. I assure you, I don’t have a weakness.”