Daniel had been young and scared. His sister had been in the hospital, recovering from an assault that nearly took her life. She had faced reconstructive work, rehabilitation to be mobile again and years of assistance to get past the mental and emotional damage she’d suffered with the broken body.
He sat in lockup, charged with a host of crimes, all of them against Family members. No job, no one to count on and a dark future. But he’d done the right thing. He’d saved Abbie, and that was worth whatever he’d had to face.
Into that room walked a man so tall and imposing, Daniel had to fight the urge to stand and run. Instead, he’d listened as the man had outlined what he thought could be a second chance for Daniel. A chance to prove those who’d accused him wrong. A chance to rise and learn and be a leader and protector.
Daniel had listened, asked a few questions, weighed his scant options and had signed the papers. Ellis had become more than a mentor, and outside his immediate family, the first person to really believe in Daniel.
That had changed his life. Changed his trajectory, and he’d become someone better.
Phantom Corps was his family.
Enough of that. He made the choices that put him in that chair and in the end, he was satisfied with his life.
The information on the pages in his hands filled him with dread. A stillness washed through him as he began to extrapolate outward, applying the facts, adding them to what he already knew.
There was activity at the Edge. People disappearing. Mercenaries had become more rampant and in some cases, more violent. Information leaked through: something was up on the other side, and now, apparently, new information had come to light.
He’d fallen into the information so deeply, the planning and deciphering of many possible approaches, he didn’t hear the connecting door open until someone spoke. “Go in now, Mr. Haws, Mr. Solace.” Ellis’s assistant looked to be approximately three hundred standard years old, but Daniel had no doubt the man could kill with his bare hands.
Ellis waved them to sit as he ended a comm. The man behind the giant desk with the communications console at his back was one of the most important and influential in all the ’Verses. He dwarfed even the furniture he used, but Daniel knew from experience the man could break into a building, acquire information from a sealed, guarded comm room and escape without a single sound. He may have been at least six foot eight standard feet, but Wilhelm Ellis was stealthy and graceful in ways most people never expected, which only made him more formidable. Daniel respected Wilhelm Ellis, looked up to him as he would a father. Gods knew his own father wasn’t worthy of admiration or respect. But he’d certainly never make the mistake of underestimating him.
“This is going to take a while. Hold all communications unless they come from Roman Lyons himself.” Comandante Wilhelm Ellis didn’t look up from his work as he gave the order. It wasn’t a lack of respect toward the assistant, but the opposite; Ellis just assumed it would happen and be done correctly. If he didn’t, the man wouldn’t have been in Ellis’s employ.
He typed out a quick note before turning back to Daniel and Andrei, giving them a smile that most would have found disquieting.
“Boys, and how are you?”
“Busy these days, sir. I trust you received our debrief of the last trip to Corazon?” Corazon was a ’Verse on the Edge, teetering dangerously toward Imperial influence. They’d dealt with some local militia, people who had a decent relationship with the mercenaries running the Edge. It would be a very good thing to have them on the side of the Federation. Mercenaries often had information long before anyone else; it was just a matter of getting them to share it.
Ellis indicated the screen to his left. “I received it. Well done as usual. I hear you debriefed Roman on this and your previous mission. He seems to be satisfied with you as a liaison.” From Ellis this was high praise. He motioned to the files with a tip of his chin. “Did you review those?”
“Yes, sir.”
“We’ve evaluated it, and I’ve spoken to Roman.” Ellis nodded shortly at Daniel. “I need you to go to Caelinus and pick up a passenger.”
Daniel had a feeling it was moving in that direction. Hells, he hated these trips into Imperial territory. It was dangerous and tedious, and he had to risk exposing their people on the other side.
The file indicated the informant would be in possession of a lot of important information about Fardelle’s smuggling of weapons and terrorists into Federation territory and other tactical intelligence. But that usually meant a trip to the Edge, not fully into Imperial territory. Did he just say . . . ?
“
Passenger?
We’ll be extracting the informant as well?” This was a job far better suited to one of his special teams, wasn’t it?
“Yes. The last packet we received is incendiary. We need to move right away to get her out. If she has even half of what our contact indicates, this could tip the balance in our favor considerably.”
“Her?”
“Carina Fardelle. Ciro Fardelle’s daughter.”
Well now. That was interesting
.
That upped the risk factor immensely. But he understood the choice to send them in for her now. A high-profile target like that would be better off in their hands.
He could get in and out on his own with a minimum of damage, but dragging along some spoiled princess would add a great deal of complication to the process. He made a mental note to bring some of the tranquilizer he’d used on one of his most recent missions. Just a quick administration with a minuscule needle, and the target would be far more malleable within a breath or two. He wondered why she was giving them this information. Wondered who this Carina Fardelle was on the inside. Would she be a spy? A double agent? A whiny, weak mess of a woman he’d have to drag around? What motivated someone like her to do something so drastic?
“The intel she has will be embedded. Only safe release here with proper codes will get the data free. He’s gathering materials, gentlemen. Gathering materials for what purpose we don’t know, but it involves a lab and possible testing in a public place. That’s all I’ve got for now, but that’s more than enough.”
Daniel and Andrei got very still but said nothing. Ellis made the choice to have them go in; they’d go. Whatever this information was, it was important enough to risk the trip. Daniel believed that implicitly.
“She’s given us intel before. The mother has, too. We can trust them. To a point. Daniel, I want you to head up the mission. You’ll be her contact and get her out of Fardelle’s compound and back here. We have some very good inside information regarding the schematics of the compound, specifically the living quarters and Fardelle’s work spaces via our friend on the Edge. It’s been sent to your secured comm. Pick a team to provide support for extraction if necessary. This is of top-level importance. I don’t have to tell you this information she possesses can prevent a war. I want you on this as soon as possible. Phantom Level clearance and license to eradicate all impediments to your success. All resources are, as always, at your command.”
Daniel stood and gave a small bow; Andrei did the same. Phantom Level meant he could destroy, kill, bribe, kidnap, whatever he had to do. Ellis hadn’t needed to say it; Daniel always had that clearance, though the saying reinforced the importance and gravity of the mission and the ability to plan it however he needed to. He liked the freedom but hated the possibilities. He tucked the folders into his case and began to plan an extraction that would either save the Federation or get him and his men killed.
Daniel left, not needing to say more. He’d go over all the details and would consult Ellis as was necessary. They were admonished to be careful and were dismissed. Daniel told Andrei to round up their team and have them meet back at their offices after his last class of the day.
He took a train back to his flat after the class, thinking through the contingencies as he traveled. It would be risky, but with the way things were on the Edge and at the Frontier, sneaking across wouldn’t be that difficult. The biggest challenge would be getting her out with the hounds of all seven hells on their tail. It would be dependent on what this Carina was like. She could slow him down and get them caught, or be halfway useful. That sort of uncertainty wasn’t anything he liked, but it was quite frequently part of what he did.
By rote, he headed back out, a kit bag on his shoulder. First to work, then to play and shed the part of himself he only could with his family at a name day dinner later that evening.
He’d done this job a long time. It had become his life, and he had no regrets. It gave him a direction. It made him a good man, even when he doubted himself at times. He was on the right side. He was good at it, he made a difference, and at the end of the day, what else did a man have?
A family
.
Unlike Roman, Daniel didn’t come home to a house filled with the chaos of children and a wife. That’s what was missing at the end of every day, and the older he got, the more he realized how much of a difference that connection made in a life.
Chapter 4
N
eeding to keep busy and not think about how it’d been a standard week and no one had shown up to get her and the information, Carina had taken to using the passageways more often. Just to be able to wander and do so unobserved.
She could be nervous and jittery and who could see her?
Thinking she’d stop in and visit with the animals in the stables, she headed down that way, pausing at the cleft where she’d need to exit and realizing there were people just on the other side.
She could see them, partially, and moved to pull herself back into the passageway to go in another direction. But a sound stopped her, even as it made her heart pound in her chest. A sound, a muted gasp laden with desire so deep that even Carina, who’d never actually felt that sort of thing, understood what it was.
Her fingers dug into the rock as she pressed herself into the small crevice, keeping out of sight but able to see them better.
A man and a woman, young, barely into adulthood. Standing in the far corner of the loft, the man’s back to her as they looked at one another. The woman’s hands slid under the hem of his simple workman’s jersey. Her face was tipped up, looking at him with raw yearning all over her features. He touched her face, sliding his fingers down her throat, and she made the sound again.
It tore through Carina’s belly, tightened her nipples and brought a flush to her face. What would it feel like to want to look at someone like that? To open yourself up to your very core for someone else that way?
It was more than the way he brushed the backs of his fingers over the curve of her breasts as they heaved up and over the low neckline of her blouse. More than the darkened shadow of her nipples and the way a gasp seemed to rip from the woman’s lips as her lover moved lower, flicking against them with this thumbs.
His hands would be rough, work hardened.
The woman arched into him as his hand slid into the blouse and freed one of her breasts. Carina’s heart threatened to burst through her chest. She’d seen all manner of things as she’d traveled around and kept her eyes open, but never so close and so totally intimate. This couple had a connection so raw and tangible, Carina felt it from her hiding place. Felt the charge between them. It was more intimate than if he’d thrust himself into her from behind right in full view. The man craved touching his woman, and she clearly couldn’t get enough, either.
Carina held a hand at her own throat as she watched, not able to move, even to touch herself. Their magic held her still as she watched, envy burning through her belly. He spoke in the woman’s ear, and she laughed, low and sort of sultry. Then she grabbed the front of his pants and pulled them open, sliding her hand down into his underpants.
And then
he
made a sound. An answering sound to hers, but his was unmistakably male. Low, nearly a growl, and Carina had to let out the breath she’d held, but it was shaky.
She wanted this. Not with that man of course, but with someone who was hers alone and who looked at her, not with the sick greed Hartley Alem did, but as if she was so beautiful and desirable he couldn’t stop himself from staring and wanting to touch her.
He’d already begun to lay the woman down in the loft when a clatter sounded below, and they both sat up, pulling themselves back together. Shouts sounded out, calling names, so Carina supposed someone was looking for the man. Hurriedly, he leaned down to kiss her as she tried not to laugh and reached up to fix his hair.
They left, and Carina continued to stand there for some time afterward, feeling nothing but loss.
C
arina barely kept back a shudder of revulsion. She hated the touch of Hartley’s hand on her forearm. Or her back, even a shoulder. Constantly on her, wanting to take up all the space in every room until she had no place to hide. It drained her, made her lose hope. What she’d have as his bride was not what she’d witnessed just hours before. This wasn’t an acceptable substitute for that. She had no idea how women could stand this sort of thing, not if they knew what those two in the loft had was possible.
Her sorry excuse for a fiancé had taken to arriving every single afternoon, and she’d been ordered to attend to him under the guise of courtly flirting. Her mother had been sure to always be present as was the expectation. It was an older way to deal with courtship, but her father was old-fashioned. Enough that her mother had easily convinced him that it befitted his position to serve as example to his people, to hold up the old ways. Thank the gods he was easily led by his ego at times. It lengthened the process considerably, giving Carina time to find a way out of marrying that monster if they didn’t come for her.
Of course, the monster himself was agitated by this wait and the constant supervision. He had continually tried to get Carina alone. Her mother was smarter, and it wasn’t as if Hartley could complain to Carina’s father that all the supervision kept him from divesting his daughter of her virgin status before the nuptials had been completed.