Epic: Book 02 - Outlaw Trigger (16 page)

Scott grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently, but her body was lifeless in his hands.

“
She’s going to be okay. Varya’s coming!”

Scott shook Nicole’s shoulders again to no avail; her body was still limp.
It’s a dream. I’m not here. She’s not here.
He was still in bed, and his alarm clock would wake him up. He was still in the bunk room, sleeping.

Becan’s voice wavered. “Oh God…oh God…”

Jayden and Varvara rounded the corner and entered the room, Clarke and Max behind them.

“
What happened?” Max asked.

Varvara made for Nicole. Her hands trembled as she tried to separate Scott. “Please, Scott! Please!” Her voice shook. “Let me see her!”

Scott couldn’t speak. He couldn’t see straight. He slipped his hand into Nicole’s, entwining his fingers around hers. She didn’t squeeze back.

Max tugged Scott away. “Scott, let Varya work, please! She’s gonna be okay, just let her get there!”

She always squeezes back. Why isn’t she squeezing back?

Max whipped his head to the door. “Where the
hell
is Galina?”

“
She’s coming!” Travis said. “She’s down the hall right now!”

Squeeze back! Please baby, squeeze back! You can, I know it!
He couldn’t even scream. His jaw was locked wide open.

Varvara shoved, and Scott fell away.

Max locked his arms around Scott’s shoulders and held him in check. “She’s going to be all right, okay? She’s going to be all right—let them work!”

Varvara was atop Nicole when Galina burst through the door.

“
Where is she?” Galina asked, joining Varvara. “Anything?” she asked in Russian.

“
Nothing. No pulse, no warmth, there’s nothing.”

David put his fist over his mouth. His eyes moved from Scott to Nicole.

Scott’s mind was blank. He could still see Nicole, but he didn’t want to. His body writhed like a child’s. He made no more attempt to go near her.

Becan, Jayden, and Travis knelt beside David. Esther and Maksim watched behind them. Clarke stood dumbstruck in the hall, as a gathering of officers drew near.

Max looked at the officers in the hall, then turned back to Clarke. “Captain.”

Clarke’s stare was fixed on Nicole.

“
Captain!”

Clarke snapped out of it and focused on Max.

“
Get them outta here!” Max said as he pointed to the other officers.

Clarke immediately waved off the crowd. “Please return to your quarters! Now!”

As Galina desperately worked on Nicole, the color in David’s face began to drain. “Do you want me to call the infirmary?”

Galina pounded on Nicole’s chest. Becan flinched with every hit.

“
Galina?”

She pounded harder. Harder. Harder.

Scott curled in a ball in the corner.

Galina cursed in Russian and slammed her fist into Nicole’s chest a final time. Nicole’s body moved with the impact, but there was nothing else. No movement. No sound. Nothing.

She was dead.

Galina’s muscles sagged, and she lowered her head. She raised a hand to cover her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.

“
Do you want me to call the infirmary?” David asked again.

“
No!”
she screamed at him, biting down on her fist. Her body tensed and she shook her head. “No,” she murmured again.

Scott crawled to the corner as Max let him go. He couldn’t look at her. He couldn’t look at Nicole. Though no words would come from his tear-stricken gasp, in his mind, he cried out her name. He cried it again and again. He cried from the depths of his soul.

Nicole never answered.

9

Saturday, August 6
^th
, 0011NE

0650 hours

At the same time

The door to the Inner Sanctum opened and Nijinsky strode down the carpet. At the front of the room, adorned in the horns of his fulcrum armor, Yuri Dostoevsky waited.

Nijinsky halted before the throne, giving the Nightman salute. “I have done what you have asked of me,” he said in Russian.

Dostoevsky’s stare met him back. “We know. We always know.”

Nijinsky lifted his eyes to the shadowed veil of the throne. Thoor, the Terror upon it, spoke his name.

“
Alexander Nijinsky.”

Nijinsky stood erect; the general rose from his seat.

“
You have severed the chains to your soul. You have paid for your conversion with blood. You have accepted our training. You have fulfilled our requirement.”

The hair on Nijinsky’s arms tingled.

“
You are now one with the Night.” Thoor gave a salute, and Dostoevsky did the same. “Your armor awaits in your room.”

Nijinsky started back in surprise. “It is already there?”

“
It was there before you came.”

“…
then you knew when it happened?”

“
It is as I told you,” said Dostoevsky again. “We always know.”

A moment of silence passed, before Nijinsky swallowed a breath. “Thank you, general. I will never fail you.”

“
Leave us, slayer,” Thoor answered.

Nijinsky acknowledged the general, turned around, and strode down the carpet. Thoor and Dostoevsky watched as he opened the wooden doors and disappeared into the Hall of the Fulcrums. The Inner Sanctum was left in silence.

Dostoevsky’s eyes sunk. For several seconds, he said nothing. When he finally spoke again, his voice was intense with new purpose.

“
It has begun.”

* * *

1823 hours

Later that evening

David stepped through the lounge doors, where the Fourteenth stood in silence, vacant stares on their faces. It was the first time they’d seen him all day. The first time they’d see him since she died. There was no coffee or tea in brew. There was no conversational chatter. There was barely any life at all.

Becan, Travis, and Jayden sat at one table, Varvara and Esther beside them. Max, Boris, Oleg, and Maksim sat at the far end. Every one of them wore a blank look.

As soon as they saw David, they straightened their postures.

“
How’s Remmy?”

David sighed as he eased the door shut. “He’s okay.” He lied. “For right now.”

“
Did he talk to yeh?”

David looked down. “A little bit. Galina’s with him, so…” His face fell into a frown, and he eased into a chair. “I don’t know. It’s too soon to say anything.” After several seconds had passed, he turned to them. “Anyone talk to Will?”

“
I did,” Jayden answered. “He’s shaken up, but he’s gonna be all right.”

David said nothing.

“
I don’t think annyone should leave him alone tonigh’,” Becan said. “I’m talkin’ abou’ Remmy.”

“
Galina’s going to stay with him. She’s got him on suicide watch, so…we’re going to get some kind of rotation going.” As soon as those words—suicide watch—left David’s mouth, a tangible weight hit the air. David leaned forward and rubbed his face. “I don’t know for how long. She’s sleeping on the floor tonight, but tomorrow she’s going to try and get him into a room with a bunk. So someone can stay with him all the time.”

“
I can stay with him,” Jayden said.

Becan nodded. “Me too.”

“
I can stay,” added Travis.

“
I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” David said. “Galina thinks we should stick with three or four people maximum, she thinks the consistency would be good.” He turned to Becan and Jayden. “It’ll probably be us and her, with Varya checking in while Galina’s not available.”

Travis tried not to look disappointed. “You think it’d be all right if the rest of us stopped to visit?”

David looked at Travis, then smiled sincerely. “Definitely, Trav. He’d love to know that you care.”

The room grew quiet for a moment, before Becan coughed to clear his throat. “So it was Silent Fever, then?”

David made no answer.

“
Da,” Varvara answered. Her voice was weak, and her eyes were dark. She’d been that way since morning. Her cowboy hat sat untouched on the tabletop.

“
So wha’ the bloody hell is Silent Fever?”

“
No one knows.”

“
Someone
here knows,” Becan’s eyes narrowed. Max fell into his glare. “An’ they better start talkin’.”

“
What makes you think I know?” Max asked.

“
Just call it a bloody hunch.”

“
Are you joking?”

“
Yeh never did like Remmy, an’ we all know it.”

“
Yeah, so I killed his girlfriend. That makes a lot of sense, moron. Way to uncover the truth.”

Becan didn’t answer.

Varvara sucked in through her nostrils. “Silent Fever is unknown disease. It is a virus. Nobody knows why it is here.”

Becan stared at her. “Does annyone know why it’s killin’ people we know?”

“
Just one,” David said.

“
Wha’ abou’ Joe?”

“
Joe was with the Eighth. Different unit entirely. He never ran with our crew, we just ate with him.”

Oleg spoke for the first time. “Who is Joe?”

“
He was with Will and Derek’s unit,” Travis answered. “He died not long after we met him.”

“
Of Silent Fever?”

“
Yeah.”

“
We still knew him,” Becan said.

David sighed and stared at the Irishman. “The only thing that matters right now is that Nicole’s dead, and Scott’s about one step away from insane.”

Esther winced at David’s words. “Does Galina think he’ll…?”

“
We don’t know. That’s why she’s got him on watch. He just lost his fiancee, for God’s sake. They’ve been together more than six years. How would you deal with that?”

Esther’s gaze sunk to the floor.

“
I talked to Clarke earlier,” Max said. “He’s gonna relieve Scott till he’s ready to come back. Just like he did with Svetlana.”

Jayden’s eyes widened in realization. “What if he leaves? Like she did?”

“
Who is Svetlana?” Oleg asked.

“
Don’t ask,” Becan answered. “Touchy subject.”

David eyed the Irishman, then turned to Oleg. “She was in the Fourteenth. She dated a lieutenant who was with the unit, too. He got killed—”

“
Got murdered,” Becan corrected.

David eyed him again. “He died.” His gaze returned to Oleg. “And she left the unit.”

“
You think Remington will leave?” Oleg asked. “Where will he go?”

“
I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers here.”

“
Does he have family?”

David shook his head. “His parents died when he was young. He has a younger brother.”

“
What about Nicole’s parents?” asked Jayden.

David frowned. “He called her parents a few hours ago.” He bit his lip, hesitated, then finally spoke. “They won’t be checking up on him anytime soon. That’s all I can say.”

“
They’re gonna blame him…” Jayden said.

“
He already blames himself.”

“
Does his brother know?”

David nodded.

“
What’s
he
gonna do?” Jayden asked.

“
What can he do? He’s not even in college yet. Mark’s just a kid.”

Travis shook his head. “I can’t believe this just happened. I can’t believe we’re talking about this. How could someone as good as Scott go through this?”

“
Because life ain’t fair,” Max said.

Becan glared at him.

“
What? What’d I say? It’s true, ain’t it?”

Before an argument could erupt, Esther spoke up with a question. “
When
can we visit him?”

Becan and Max settled down.

“
Whenever you want,” David answered. “I wouldn’t go tonight, though. He’s sleeping, and that’s exactly what he needs to do right now.”

“
Would tomorrow be okay?”

“
Give him time to wake up. Then I think it’d be fine.”

Esther’s eyes lingered on David for a moment. She touched the back of her neck. “Do you think it’d be…appropriate for me to visit him? I haven’t known him for very long, I just…”

As her words trailed off, David looked at her and tried to smile. “Esther, you can go. Believe me. It’s okay.”

She offered a single nod.

Oleg folded his arms. “So now, what do we do? What do we do if we get called on mission? Does he go with us?”

“
How the bloody hell’s he goin’ to go with us like he is?” Becan asked.

“
I am sorry,” Oleg said. “I am only asking.”

“
It’s true though,” Travis said, looking at David. “What if we get called out?”

Max answered before David could. “Like I already said, as of right now he’s relieved. Galina’s an epsilon, she can handle officer duties.”