Sabin, A Seven Novel (35 page)

“Head count,” I say. Everyone calls out their name, except for Andros. He’s present, but doesn’t comment.

“Rafe, check him.”

“No life reading, Sabin.”

“Come again?” I ask as I swallow my panic.

“No life reading. His suit appears to have been compromised.”

“Fucking hell! Verus, how far out?”

“Ten minutes?”

“Can you shorten it?” I ask, knowing full well the answer.

“I can try to program us for a faster speed, but no guarantees.”

“Do it.”

Eight minutes later, we’re back. Andros is unresponsive. We put our MSI on him but have no success, and I have to pronounce him.

Serena is diving with Druh’ahan and doesn’t know yet.

“Everyone, meet in the sec center. We must notify the League immediately.” I’m sick. Literally. The last time we lost anyone was when we invaded the Mastermind’s compound. And now this. Andros was the quiet one, keeping to himself, but always following orders and getting the job done.

Zetere is visibly shaken when I tell him. At the beginning of our conversation, he stands, but plummets into a chair upon hearing about the news.

“This is a truly sad day for The Seven. Sabin, how would you like to handle this? Do you want to tell his family?”

“Yes. I should be the one to tell them and you can tell the Council.”

“Very well. I am sorry for your loss. I know you were with Andros for quite some time. Who will you put in as his replacement?”

I rub my face. This is something far beyond what I can even think about right now. “I don’t know yet. We have the ten new recruits you’ve sent, but I only know three. I will have to see.”

“That’s as well. You will need to be comfortable with whoever it is you choose. Your men have to trust them.”

“They will, and until we find one we all agree on, we will remain six. But I must go. I have to inform Andros’ family.”

“Tell the men I am very sorry for everyone’s loss.”

A chair is within my reach, so I pull it toward me and practically fall into it. “Will someone recap for me what happened? I can’t …”

Verus’ voice is scratchy. “No sign of life in the building but some on the planet. By the time Hrennuan tells us to get out, the Shaurok know we’re there. We leave and think we’ve made a clean break, but we don’t. Midway here, they attack. We fend them off, believing we’re good, but during your roll call, Andros doesn’t respond. Rafe finds the integrity of his suit was compromised. Those fuckers got to him and we didn’t even know it.” Verus’ fist crashes onto the countertop where he stands. He’s not the one that normally gets violent. I am.

My body is weary. Weary of the Shaurok. Weary of Judgment Day. And weary of fretting over my men. “Verus, Edge, our path back was clear, correct?”

“Yes,” they both reply.

“Where is Serena?” Verus taps the complink and then says, “She’s not here, nor is Druh’ahan. They must still be diving.”

“Get them back. I’m not entirely comfortable having them out there alone right now.”

“On it.”

A few minutes later, Verus tells me Druh’ahan is not responding to his communication. “Give me their last location. Now!”

Verus sends it to me and I charge out of the house with Rafe on my heels. We’re still suited up and Rafe is hollering something about not going out there alone. I don’t pay any attention to him. I only transcend to the location Verus transmitted to me.

When I arrive underwater, with Rafe by my side, I find Serena and Druh’ahan exploring like two happy kids. Grabbing Druh’ahan, I nearly wrench his body out of the water, yelling at him. It serves no purpose, because of the underwater distortion, but he gets my message. My thoughts are loud enough for him. Serena’s eyes nearly bug out of her head, and the mask she wears only makes them appear larger. Using my thumb, I indicate she needs to surface.

When we break the water’s surface, she knows something’s wrong. “What happened?”

“We need to get home. Now.”

“Okay. Let me swim to shore.”

“No. Take hold of my neck. You’re coming with me.” As soon as her arms are around me, I transcend.

We get back to the house, and Serena claims she’s dizzy. Of course she would be. “Let me help you.” I get her tank off her back and help her rid herself of her cumbersome equipment. “This stuff is so bulky.”

“Yeah, but I need it to breathe,” she pants.

“You should wear one of our suits. It’s so much easier.”

“Maybe you should’ve offered earlier.” She scowls. And she’s right. I should have. “I need to sit.” She finds the closest chair and falls back into it, holding her head.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. What happened?” she asks the floor.

When the words don’t come, my silence expands in the room, filling it with unspoken agony. She looks up and I that’s when she notices my grief.

“Oh no. Who?” She stands and touches my face.

She’s wet from her dive and she shivers.

My voice cracks as I say his name. “Andros.”

“How?”

When I explain, I also tell her how it didn’t feel right when we got there.

“Oh, Sabin, I’m so sorry. I know how important your men and their safety are to you.”

“That’s why I pulled you out of your dive. Just wanted to make sure the Shaurok didn’t follow us back here.”

“No, no. I’m glad you did. I want to be here with you anyway.”

And I’ll admit, having her this close makes me feel more at ease. Not only for her safety, but oddly, it calms me.

“How are the others?” she wants to know.

“About the same. Here’s the thing. I’m trying to work up the courage to notify his family. And I …”

“I’ll be by your side. You won’t be there alone. They understood the risks he was taking.”

“He was their son, though, and that never makes it easier, no matter the risk or danger.”

She forces me to face her. “You can’t put this on yourself. You didn’t know this would happen. This could’ve been any one of you and not Andros. He just happened to have been in the wrong place.”

“Serena, I’m not blaming myself for this. We did everything possible to ensure this
wouldn’t
happen. I don’t know how many times we went over the scenario. We even sent in another explorer when we were there. It still bewilders me how the hell they followed us. We thought we were away free and clear and suddenly, there they were. The Shaurok are not known for their wily ways.”

“Maybe they got a software upgrade,” she suggests and chuckles.

“It’s not a laughing matter.”

Then her brows knit together, like she does when her brain is in overdrive. “That’s not what I’m laughing at. I’m laughing at my idea. You know how you all have that MSI stuff planted in your gray matter? Well, maybe someone did that to them. Implanted something to make them smarter. You know, like a software upgrade. That’s what humans call it anyway. Maybe it’s given them the ability to deduce things they weren’t able to before.”

That’s an interesting notion, one I hadn’t even considered. “Hell, if that’s the case, we’re fucked. Come on.”

I call everyone into the conference center and have Serena explain what she suggested to me.

“Verus, Edge, is there any way to confirm this?”

Verus and Edge share a look before Verus responds. “Not unless we can capture one.”

“Let’s make it happen. If we can do that, it may bring us closer to our goal. And won’t it satisfy us if we can extract whatever data is on the thing, if there even is an implant in their tiny brains?”

All the men grin.

“How will you do it?” Serena asks.

“We go back to the base in Andromeda. They won’t expect our return, given our last visit,” I say.

“But wait. They knew you were coming. Won’t they know again?”

“I expect they will, but this time we will prepare for that.”

She shakes her head. “You can’t barge in and expect them to just go—oh hey, come on in. What can we do for you?”

The men chuckle. “Serena, we won’t. We’ll go in under transparency.”

“Didn’t you do that before? And didn’t they detect you before?”

“Yes, but we’ll find a break in their security, now that we know they have some sort of warning system established. We were naive before. This time, we tell no one of our plans. And that includes the League. This is to remain completely within the confines of this room. Am I clear?”

Everyone agrees.

“Excellent. Now I must inform Andros’ family of his life’s passing. I would like all of you present when I do this.”

It is a very unpleasant thing to tell a family that their son, brother, and loved one has been taken from them. I have been both at the giving and receiving end of these conversations and I forget how difficult it is until I have to tell a family again. His parents are devastated, but his brothers and sister are unresponsive. That response is worse, in my opinion. Not showing any emotion at all will be more difficult to deal with in the days ahead. And I understand that all too well.

“Please, if there’s anything at all that we can do, don’t hesitate to contact us.”

We make arrangements for Drey and Helios to return Andros’ body to Nyan’trua the next day. In the meantime, the men go to work assessing a better way to return to the place where the Shaurok are, but this time they look for a way to get in undetected.

In the days since Andros’ death, there has been a shift in Sabin’s behavior. Actually, the shift has occurred in all the men. Sabin says he doesn’t blame himself, but I don’t believe him. He talks very little and spends most of his time in the sec center with Edge and Verus. I know he wants to make sure nothing happens on the next attempt to grab Judgment Day, but he’s not eating or sleeping and I’m not sure how to help him.

Walter is another problem. I love that puppy to pieces, but he is very demanding. Of course I don’t have anything to compare him to, but it seems that he isn’t content unless I am focused on him one hundred percent of the time. Who has time for this? Everything I read says that puppies sleep a lot. Apparently that doesn’t apply to Walter. All he does is eat, whine, bark, pee, poop, and want to play. I give him as much attention as I can, but I don’t have twenty-four free hours in the day. I swear that puppy never tires out. And talk about biting … my arms and hands are covered in bite marks from the little bugger. And I’m not talking about little nips. The sucker sinks his teeth in and draws blood. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear one of his parents was a piranha. I’ll admit I’m not the greatest when it comes to disciplining him. Every time he does something bad, he looks at me with those huge eyes, and I’m such a sucker, I end up kissing him instead of training him. He’s never going to learn not to do things if I keep this up.

And then there is the deal with him chewing anything he can get his little razor teeth on—furniture legs, door frames, and shoes seem to be his favorites. If this puppy doesn’t drive me straight to the nut house, nothing will. The MSIs are handy for cleaning things up, but I wish they could teach Walter how to behave. My only reprieve is nighttime when I sleep.

Except I’m not sleeping anymore because I worry about Sabin. He’s turned into two segmented men. One is commanding his men, and the other is lost, unable to cope.

Sabin has known Rafe the longest, so I’ve decided to talk to him about it. One day, during dinner, it’s only the two of us so I decide to give it a go.

“Rafe, do you mind if I ask you something?” I’ve never quite warmed up to Rafe, like I have Edge, so this is a long stretch for me.

He takes his eyes off his plate and looks at me. “Not at all.” His tone isn’t very friendly, but then again, none of the men, other than Edge, are all that approachable or amiable. They are intimidating, but I won’t let that stop me.

“It’s about Sabin.”

“I figured as much. It’s not like you and I have a whole lot in common, Serena.” His tone is frigid and not at all welcoming.

My nerves have sucked all the saliva out of my mouth and I can’t seem to find enough to help swallow the brick in my throat. I’m not sure why he makes me so damned freaked out, but he does. I push past it and say, “I can’t reach him. He’s closed himself off and I don’t know what to do.”