Children of Evolution (The Gateway Series Book 2) (10 page)

She dropped into the thick padding and rolled herself back against the railing as Elias walked past to look over the tactical table, which was showing a whole lot of nothing at the moment. He stared at it anyway for a few seconds like it held the secrets of the universe. Then he looked up and said, "OK, let's get started."

Sam and Ace came up onto the stage and leaned against the rail where they could see the table, leaving one chair empty after Mos and Impact sat. Elias glanced at that chair and tapped a switch on the table. "Gram, you coming?"

“Keep your shirt on,” Gram grated from the hall. He hobbled in with a mug in each hand, his wince bouncing into place with each step.
 

He grunted a couple curses as he climbed the steps, but despite an honest effort, Nikki only caught bits and pieces. She grimaced at the missed opportunity. Gram was one of her best sources for new curse-cobbling material. Over the years he'd built up an impressive storehouse of truly choice material, a storehouse Nikki made it a point to plunder whenever she could.

As he passed her, Gram pressed one of the mugs into Nikki's hands with a wink that made one bushy brow and one wrinkled cheek meet. “Perk it up, Red. The boss has some wind in him today.”

Nikki took the mug with a rush of gratitude that peaked when the cold seeping through the ceramic hit her palms. Curling up in the chair, she curved herself around the mug with a deep hum, leaning over to breathe in the aroma.
 

She'd tried coffee many ways over the past few months—Gram and Mos practically lived on the stuff—and she was learning to appreciate it in pretty much any form, but her hands-down favorite was Gram's iced coffee, a blissful swirl of bitter, sweet, and silky cold yumminess.

"What's with this 'Red'? Why do you keep calling her that?" Coop asked with a bump in his tone that said this wasn't the first time he'd wondered.

Gram just rattled a chuckle that made Nikki want to clear her throat as he eased down into his chair. Once he'd settled himself, he cut a glance at Coop and said, "Should be obvious."

Nikki took a sip to hide a smile that had a little to do with the coffee, a lot more to do with Coop's frustration. She'd figured out the nickname weeks ago—meaning she'd asked. Red because foxes are red, some of them. Foxes because they run around all night and sleep all day, just like she did.

Silly as it was for a nickname, it made her smile. She had a call sign from somebody on the team, one she'd earned on her own, if only by keeping odd hours. She didn't want to be a sworn member of the team or anything—just thinking about it started up a panic—but for some reason, hearing Gram call her Red made her feel warm, despite the cold coffee, like somebody wanted her here. Even though she had no intention of staying, being wanted felt good. Better than good.

"Eyes front," Elias said in his business voice. He wasn't pissed, not exactly, but he sounded serious and had enough of a bark to his tone to spoil Nikki's smile as she turned her attention to him.

He didn't jump right in though. Instead he stared at the tactical display for a few more seconds with a look hard enough to make Nikki wonder if maybe the blank screen was the source of his kinda mood.

"I'm sure you all know by now that Gideon's back," he said at last. "He returned this afternoon and asked me to lock him in the vault."

Nikki wanted to ask the obvious question, the same one she could see in Mos's eyes across the table, but Elias went on in a tone that discouraged interruption.

"Last night he lost control." Elias didn't explain what that meant, but nobody asked. Judging by their expressions, Nikki was fairly sure everyone else around the table had a pretty good idea what that meant. She was hazy on the whole Gideon/monster situation, but they'd told her enough for her to know Elias probably didn't mean Gideon had partied a little too hard.
 

"There were casualties," Elias said. "Four, at least."

Nikki swallowed the mouthful of coffee in a painful gulp she felt all the way down. She had to clear her throat twice before she could ask where.

Elias gave his head a half shake before saying, "He woke up this morning in the free zone south of the city, but he was out of control for hours. We don't know the full scope yet."

Nikki swallowed again and squeezed her eyes shut. Those hungry red eyes staring at her out of the dark alley were suddenly all she could see in her head. Then the sound of Apple Face's screaming joined them. She downed half her mug like it was going to wash out the memories, but all she managed to do was give herself a killer brain freeze.
 

Still wincing, she opened her eyes and glanced around, but nobody seemed to have noticed her reaction, or if they had they must have chalked it up to the brain freeze. Then she caught Sam's eye where he was leaning against the rail on Elias's left. He wasn't fooled. She could almost see the pieces clicking together behind his dark brown eyes.

She hadn't lied to him, not really. She'd just held back a detail or two from her night. A big detail or two. She'd done nothing wrong, or nothing wrong to Sam, at least. But the look he gave her made her feel three kinds of lousy.
 

Elias was still talking, but Nikki had missed something. She pulled her attention from Sam as Elias said again, "Coop?"

"Yeah, I got it. I got it," he said. "I think." He tapped and scrolled furiously, his expression an amusing mix of defensive and frustrated as he tried to navigate Kate's systems. "Yep, got it."

The broad tabletop lit up as the tactical display hummed to life. A holographic image of Seattle coalesced over the display, building from the ground up. The image rotated and shrank as Coop zoomed out enough to include the free zone bounding the city in a thin curve to the south and east.

"Putting in the coordinates now," Coop murmured, and a red dot appeared in the southern arm of the free zone. Nikki noticed, with a tremor in her gut, that the dot was within spitting distance of the no-man's land where Sam had picked her up.

"Magnify," Elias said. The way he was leaning on the table put the translucent blue image of one of the taller buildings between him and Nikki. The washed out light accentuated every wrinkle, especially around his eyes.
 

"Foot traffic should be sparse in this area after dark." Elias paused and glanced at the time on the display. "Which is not far off. Padre, Mos," he glanced at each in turn, "you're with me. We'll assess and pull damage control if needed. I want wheels up in twenty. Ace, the hole is yours."

Everybody he named nodded in turn, and Elias straightened up. "Questions?"
 

Nikki had a thousand. First and foremost, what in the world was Ace's assignment and why was nobody else cracked up by it? Nikki had to gulp down the last of her coffee to drown her own laughter before it could escape.

"Has this happened before?" Ace asked, apparently perfectly fine with her hole duties. As usual she looked more like a model-turned-athlete than the second-in-command of an underground military outfit. Nikki could easily imagine her long, toned limbs, strong features, and crystal blue eyes in front of cameras instead of behind gun sights. She had her auburn hair pulled back in a tight ponytail and was dressed in curve-hugging cargo pants, as usual, topped with a dark thermal undershirt today.
 

Also as usual, Nikki looked away once she realized where her thoughts were heading. That road led to nothing but trouble for Nikki's imagination, despite the fact that Ace was in her mid-forties, at least. Nikki refused to let herself travel that particular road, not again. Boys only for her—short-term ones at that. Girls were too much trouble, and too much pain. Losing Anella had turned Nikki inside out. Hence the boys-only rule, a rule that had kept her nearly pain-free until Michael pulled his stunt. Good thing both were one-time-only events.
 

Elias shook his head and looked back at the hologram as he considered Ace's question, his gaze lingering there even after Coop shut it down. "Not like this. There were incidents right after E-Day, but only until Gideon realized what happened when he gave up control. Since then, not one slip. Not as far as I know." This last was delivered in a tone that was as surprising as it was loaded. It said, pretty clearly, that the things Gideon kept from Elias could probably fill the Wasteland. She knew he and Gideon had been at odds since her rescue, but she'd never heard Elias speak ill of him before, not even with just a tone.

"Any idea what caused it?" Ace pushed off the rail and stepped closer to the table to let Mos and Sam slip by on their way to the door.

"No. We can't keep him locked up forever, but until we get to the bottom of this, keep the lower level—"

A blocky form stopped between Nikki and the conversation and shoved an empty coffee mug into her hands. She bobbled her own empty and nearly dropped both before she got them under control. Gram just rattled a low laugh and ponderously sidestepped to get by.

"Hey!" she snapped.

Gram's growl, at least that's what it sounded like, cut her off. "Not doing both, Red." He limped down the four steps and turned to look back with one hand on the metal rail. "I cooked, you clean. That's the rule."

Nikki opened her mouth to argue, but nothing came out. Gram was right. That was the rule. They had a weekly rotation set up for dish duty for main meals, but when it came to snacks and such, whoever cooked for the others didn't have to clean those dishes, even if said cooking was just shooting hot water through ground up beans. She'd used that rule to her advantage too many times to argue against it now, so she turned her gaping mouth into a smile instead. Besides, both Elias and Ace were looking at her, the latter with mild amusement in her eyes, and Nikki didn't want to do anything to draw attention to herself, not until she'd talked to Gideon. She could play the good girl until then.

She slid out of her seat and headed out, but a whistle stopped her before she reached the steps. She turned back to see Coop jogging around the table, grinning widely, a cup of his own in his hand.

"Don't forget this one there,
Red
." He balanced his cup on top the two in her hands and gave her a mocking wink.

Nikki kept her smile in place, but only through a supreme effort of will. "Sure thing there,
Disney
."
 

She had the satisfaction of seeing his smug grin falter at the corners. He wasn't a big fan of her nickname for him, not now that he knew it was a crack at his anime fetish.

"Don't call me Disney," he said through his darkening smile.

"Don't call me Red," she said through her own.

"Why not? Gram calls you Red. You don't get mad at him. What's the difference?"

"Should be obvious, joke face," she parroted Gram's words, mostly. "He's on my good side." She gave him an exaggerated wink of her own and spun on her heel, her smile souring with each step toward the door.

OK, so maybe not the best good girl thing to say, but not the worst either. Coop deserved a lot more abuse for waking her up, and soon enough he'd get it, but for now Nikki was going to bite her tongue and play the good girl, as much as possible, and get the answers she needed.

Nikki was certain she broke the world record for speed-washing dishes—as long as quickly rinsing counted as washing—but even though she made it from the command center to the galley to the lower level in under three minutes, she wasn't fast enough to beat Ace.

"Off limits, kiddo," Ace said as she stepped out of the vault and pushed the door shut. She glanced up for the first time as Nikki stopped a half dozen paces away in the dimly lit tunnel.
 

"How'd you know I was going—" Nikki started to ask before she thought it through. "How'd you know it was me before you looked?"

Ace smiled and raised an eyebrow. "The major made the vault off limits. Who else would it be?"

"Right. I know," she replied, ignoring the insinuation. "But I'm just going to—"

"Off limits."

"I know. I just said that, didn't I? I'm just going to talk to—"

"Off limits." Smile still in place, Ace pointed back toward the steps.

"Yeah, got it," Nikki said as calmly as she could.
Good girl,
she repeated in her head.
Play the good girl.
"But surely he wouldn't mind if I just asked a quick—"

"Off limits, Nikki. That includes talking."

Good girl. Good girl. Good girl.

"But he didn't say no talking. How do you know he meant that unless you go ask him?"

Ace appeared to consider that for a second. "I suppose you're right. I don't know for sure."

Nikki beamed.

"But I'm not going to ask him while he's prepping for an op. As far as I'm concerned, he's already offsite."

"So…who's in charge then?"

"That would be me," Ace replied.

"Perfect. So you can decide if talking is allowed."

Ace nodded. "I suppose I can."

"You're a legend." Nikki started to edge around her. "I'll just be a few."

Ace's hand in the middle of Nikki's chest stopped her cold. "And I say no. Until the major gets back, I'm going to assume off limits means just that, in every way you can imagine."

"Even if…" Nikki trailed off. Ace was still smiling, sort of, but the look in her eyes told Nikki nothing she said was going to work. Despite that realization, Nikki spent another few seconds silently weighing her options and even opening her mouth a couple times to try a new tack, but that's as far as it went.
 

Finally, she turned around and headed for the steps. By the time she started her climb, the familiar taste of disappointment was hard at work souring her mood.
 

After months of non-existent opportunities, a half dozen near misses, and a couple of last-minute Michael roadblocks, the answers Nikki needed were now so close she could all but reach out and smack them. But they might as well have been on the other side of the world.

Enemy Within

Nikki