Noah: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 6) (2 page)

“Not even with a nuclear reactor?” Cruz’s voice held a Mexican accent.

“No. It’s complicated—”

Shaw leaned close to Claudia. “That means he thinks we’re dumb.”

Noah shook his head. “A large-scale illusion system seems to cause nuclear reactor instability.”

Reed shifted. “What about the alien power cubes?”

Reed’s fiancée, Dr. Natalya Vasin, was a brilliant energy scientist who had been helping unravel the mystery of the alien energy cubes they’d liberated from the raptors.

“They don’t interface easily with our tech. Natalya’s been helping, but while we can activate the cubes, pull them apart, and put them back together, we can’t seem to use the cubes to power our stuff reliably.”

“Damn,” Reed muttered.

Damn was right. Noah felt that crushing weight again. The survival of every man, woman, and child in the base was his responsibility.

And he was failing them. He had to get this right, or people would die.

As he followed the others back to Blue Mountain Base, those words kept thumping in his head. But once he got back to the comp lab, the massive pile of work waiting for him provided a much-needed distraction. He could think more about the power problem later. For the moment, he rolled up his sleeves and got busy.

Almost got it.
Noah leaned over his battered desk, hand holding the tiny comp chip he’d just fixed steady as he inserted it back into the comp. Delicate work, but he’d always had steady hands.

Just as he maneuvered the chip into its slot, an alarm started blaring.

Noah jerked, the chip flew out of his tweezers, hit the floor and skittered under the neighboring desk.

He sucked in a breath, and closed his eyes.
Count to three, Kim.

Finally, he opened his eyes and pulled his glasses off—he only needed the damn things when his eyes were tired. He stared at the orange light flashing above the door. He’d known the evacuation drill was happening this evening…he’d just lost track of time.

He pushed his chair back, then went looking for his missing chip.

Noah knew the drill was important. If the damned aliens invaded the base, they had to be ready to leave. He just wished they had a protected convoy to leave in.

The comp lab was empty, most of his tech team out fixing various things around the underground base. He reached under the desk, searching for the chip. Yep, this was definitely a far cry from his millionaire existence before the alien invasion.

He thought of his parents again. The last time he’d seen them, they’d fought. He’d been off the rails a little, rolling in money and prestige. Yeah, maybe he’d let it all go to his head.

He’d had a collection of expensive sports cars, a fancy penthouse apartment in the city, and had always been at the latest parties and hottest nightclubs. And after the hell Kalina had put him through, he’d worked his way through a long list of glamorous party girls.

His father had been trying to get him to wake up and focus on what really mattered.

“Well, Dad, your pep talk didn’t work, but the alien invasion certainly did the trick.” Noah cursed, maneuvering his arm awkwardly until his fingers closed over the chip. Exhaling loudly, he went back to his desk and finally got the chip in place.

He glanced up, and the small glowing cube and bits of alien tech on the corner of his desk snagged his attention. And made his jaw tighten.

The lab door slammed open and Roth Masters—leader of Squad Nine—stood in the doorway.

“Kim, alarm means you evacuate.” The man was tall and built big. He had a rugged face and ice-blue eyes, and could look pretty intimidating.

Noah had never let anyone intimidate him. “Got work to do, Roth. It’s only a drill.”

“Yeah, and everyone needs to have this down pat in case it turns into the real thing.”

Noah scowled and waved at the tech on his desk. “If I don’t get this work done, there won’t be anywhere for people to evacuate to.”

Roth blew out a breath and nodded. “Marcus told me you’re working on power for the illusion system for the Swift Wind convoy.”

“Yeah.”

“No luck?”

Luck. There was a concept Noah thought about a lot. He reached back and snagged a couple of his dice off the shelf behind him. One was red with white dots, the other a shiny, metallic silver. He had an entire collection of them—of all shapes, sizes and materials—although it was only a small portion of what he’d owned before. These were all he’d managed to save.

“Not yet.” Lady Luck was being pretty stingy with him lately.

Roth’s gaze landed on the alien cube. “You trying to use the alien energy cubes?”

“No, Masters, I hadn’t thought of that.” When the soldier lifted a brow, Noah sighed and sank back in his chair. “Sorry. We’re working on it, but it seems like everyone needs something these days.”

Yep, everyone wanted a piece of him. Some days it felt like he was back at his tech company, where he had accountants to hassle him with budgets, his management team with some new strategy, and tech geeks who wanted jobs, or for him to endorse their latest invention. Oh, and the people who’d wanted money. Women who’d wanted money. Just like his fucking ex-wife.

Roth grinned. “I could always use more tech to test in the field. Marcus keeps riding me about the fact he never gets any of the good stuff you cook up.” The man’s grin widened. “I’d like to keep bugging him.”

Noah snorted. He knew the rivalry between the squads was all in good fun. “Get in line, Roth. I have comps in the schoolrooms to repair, the Swift Wind convoy to work on, and the ventilation’s playing up in sector four.” A ping came from Noah’s comp. He glanced at the screen and when he saw the message, he rolled his eyes. “Oh, and now Captain Dragon has damn well broken the comp in the prison area…again.”

Roth lifted a brow. “Captain Dragon?”

“Bladon.” Captain Laura Bladon ran the prison area and interrogation team with a damn iron fist. Every time he had the misfortune to step foot in there, she made his life hell. She lived and breathed her work—one of the few things he found admirable about her. She wanted to beat the aliens, no matter what the cost, and that was great—but damn, she needed to loosen up. “I reckon if she could breathe fire, she would.”

Roth’s lips twitched. “It would match her hair.”

That it would. An image of Laura’s vibrant red hair flashed in his eyes. She kept it tightly braided, but even when she was nagging him to get her comp system fixed, he wondered what it would look like left loose and falling around her shoulders.

The alarm that had been shrilly blaring suddenly cut off. The silence was deafening.

“Guess the drill’s over,” Noah said.

“Yeah.” Roth glanced at his watch. “I need to go and debrief on the evac. Next time, can you play nice and at least make it look like you’re evacuating?”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

Roth shook his head. “Avery wants to have a few people over for dinner some time. Squad Nine, Hell Squad, you. I think she and Elle have it in their heads you’ve been working too hard and need to chill out.”

Avery Stillman was a former Coalition Central Intelligence Agent. She’d been rescued from a tank in an alien lab and had helped Roth uncover some secrets about the aliens. And in the process, they’d fallen in love. They’d also recently discovered another secret human enclave, hidden underground not far from Blue Mountain Base. A viable, alternative place for them to go if they were attacked.

And sweet Elle Milton was Noah’s friend. Noah liked her a lot, had even briefly considered dipping back into the relationship waters for her…but Elle had only ever had eyes for Marcus. Everyone in base was still shaking their heads over the former socialite and the scarred soldier—beauty and the beast.

“Sounds good,” Noah said.

But as Roth left, Noah stared at the man’s back. They fit, Roth and Avery. Elle and Marcus. They made each other happy and found their own little piece of heaven in the middle of hell. Noah’s hand tightened on the edge of his desk. Hell, before the alien invasion, he hadn’t believed in connections like that. But each couple had gotten lucky.

Noah lifted the dice, turning them over in his hands. Luck was a capricious bitch, that was for sure. She blessed some and cursed others.

His comp pinged again, and he saw another more insistent message from Captain Dragon. With a grin, he flicked his screen off. That was one thing he’d learned since the apocalypse—you had to enjoy the small pleasures, wherever you could find them.

Chapter Two

Laura Bladon was on a mission.

She strode through the base tunnels toward the dining room, her long legs rapidly eating up the distance. She wasn’t on her way to eat—she didn’t have time for that. No, she was trying to track down an arrogant, wayward tech genius who refused to obey the smallest of requests.

She lifted her chin, nodded at a few people who passed by. She had her team working to contain a new species of alien—a giant alien bug that looked somewhat like a dragonfly. Roth Masters, her friend from Squad Nine, had brought it in with his squad. Now her team was trying to contain the thing so the medical team could get samples to analyze. And while trying to do that, their comp system had failed…again.

She sometimes wondered if Noah Kim sabotaged it on purpose just to make her life hell.

She turned a corner into another tunnel, and watched a man, woman and small boy walk past. The boy was beaming up at his mother and father, and the father reached out to ruffle the boy’s dark hair. They passed her with a smile.

Laura’s throat went tight.

She’d had love like that. Before. She’d been part of a big, rambunctious family, the oldest sibling with a sister and two brothers. Then, two years before the invasion, she’d met Jake. Her lips twisted into a smile. Jake had been a soldier and many of the tough men on the base’s squads reminded her of him. He’d been a Coalition Navy SEAL, and she’d been Naval Intelligence. She’d tumbled head-over-boots fast for the sexy soldier who’d sauntered up to her at a bar near the base. After a whirlwind romance, he’d proposed and she’d said yes.

In the midst of juggling their busy military careers and wedding plans, the Gizzida had launched their attack on Earth.

Jake had been on a team sent to fight on the front lines that night. She’d watched them get blown to pieces by raptor ptero ships on live feed to the Intelligence Division at headquarters.

She slowed and waited to feel the soul-wrenching grief and horror.

Instead, she felt nothing.

Her steps faltered. From that moment, after Jake had died and the shiny, happy future she’d imagined was hers had disappeared, she’d gone cold. As the aliens had destroyed the planet, the ice had grown a little thicker each day. As she’d lost friends and colleagues, and finally got word that all her family had died, too, she’d gone numb.

She shook herself. She’d survived. She had work—important work—that was helping to fight the aliens.

Laura straightened her uniform shirt. Unless she was alone in her quarters, she always wore her uniform. She stepped into the busy dining room.

There was a low hubbub of conversation. The long tables were packed with people—soldiers, civilians, families, children. She scanned the room, her gaze settling on a table at the back where Hell Squad usually sat.

She saw them there, smiling and talking. Marcus Steele sat with his arm across the back of the chair of a pretty brunette—Elle Milton. She was laughing so hard she was wiping tears from her eyes. Beside her, the lanky, handsome sniper, Shaw, was gesticulating wildly and telling some dramatic story. Beside him, the tough-looking Claudia Frost had her arms crossed over her chest, shaking her head, but even from across the room, Laura could tell the woman was trying not to laugh. Laura was an expert at reading body language. Part of her intelligence duties was interrogation. The small tells and moves people made could often tell her far more than the words they said. It was good at helping her weed out the truth from the lies.

Across the table, Cruz Ramos—Hell Squad’s second-in-command sat with his partner, Santha. She was picking at her food, and Laura guessed the woman’s morning sickness had yet to pass. The squad’s scariest soldier, Gabe Jackson, sat demolishing what looked like a mountain of food. His partner, Emerson, was missing, because the doctor was with her medical team in the prison area, waiting to take alien samples. Lastly, Reed MacKinnon sat with his fiancée, Natalya, tucked close beside him. The alien-lab survivor was smiling, her face glowing.

How did they do it? How did all of Hell Squad find happiness, things to laugh about, and find the courage to risk loving in the middle of chaos? She stared harder at Natalya. How did she do it? Laura couldn’t imagine finding happiness after being cut open by the aliens and having terrible things done to her. Yet, here was Natalya, with love stamped on every inch of her pretty face. Laura guessed Reed was good at keeping a woman happy. She eyed the man’s strong features and tough, muscled body. God, he reminded Laura of Jake. Reed had been a Navy SEAL, too.

Again, Laura waited for the pain, but all she felt was a vast emptiness inside.

Then her gaze fell on the man seated at the end of the table, watching the others with a tiny smile.

Her heartbeat jumped. Noah Kim was nothing like the battle-hardened soldiers seated with him. He was taller, leaner, with straight black hair that brushed his shoulders. It gave him a rakish air, and combined with his hawkish face and black eyes that illustrated his South Korean heritage, he looked like a modern-day pirate.

Well, he might look like one, but what he really happened to be was an arrogant, know-it-all who did exactly as he pleased. Oh, he worked hard and was a genius with electronics, she knew that, but his holier-than-thou attitude drove her insane.

At that moment, he turned his head and his dark gaze hit hers. She stiffened, and for a glorious second, her belly filled with a rush of heat.

Laura’s hands curled into fists. Why? Why, out of everyone here at base, where she had friends she liked, and colleagues she respected, did this man seem to be the only one who broke through the deadness inside her?