CHAPTER 29 (Amara)
“We need him out there.” Amara leaned against the hidden hub’s console, close enough to the holos to demand Terr’s attention. His eyes flickered toward her before returning to his analysis. Amara sighed, her annoyance kindling into rage. “You know as well as I do how treacherous the missions are becoming. The Legion is more dangerous than ever. It’s foolhardy for the Director to continue to oppose his release.”
The growing tension in Terr’s shoulders acknowledged he’d heard her, although he refused to answer.
Amara shut off the holos.
Terr’s eyes narrowed between his leather-altered eyelids. “The asset can’t be trusted.” His voice hummed with a suppressed hiss, showing no sign of the soft expression she’d grown accustomed to receiving. Her continuous objections were beginning to harden him against her, as clear to see as the glint of scales replacing his natural-born skin.
Amara refused to retreat. She pressed her palm against the console and straightened her shoulders to drive her point across. “We need him,” she repeated.
“Exactly,” Terr frowned. “We can’t afford to lose him. Not until we can make more of him, at least.” He broke eye contact and returned power to the holos. His attention didn’t waver as he traced the recordings back to the timestamp he’d left off from. Amara didn’t push her luck. The hub’s seclusion provided a veil of privacy that allowed her to be bolder than norms permitted, but there was only so far she could push it. Terrokk was higher in rank. Hounding him was like playing with fire. She knew he’d never burn her, but his colleagues and superiors…well, it was best to recognize her limits.
“I thought that’s why the Director is involving me. To keep him loyal. So that he can be permitted to enter the field.”
“It would be in your best interest not to assume you know the Director’s thoughts,” Terr warned.
Amara retreated into the hub’s shadows, pausing at the exit. “His skills are wasted while stuck under lab lights,” she whispered as a final statement on the matter. “He might as well be gone for all the good it’s doing the Empire like this.”
She stepped past the threshold into the red-veined holding area separating the Aviator’s training quarters from the corridor exit.
“Amara.” The icy caution in Terr’s voice froze her mid-step. “Don’t let your emotions get you into trouble. And you’re wrong. The asset is useful, even if he never sees the light of day.”
Amara looked over her shoulder into the hub’s shadow. The monitor hive’s projected light made the white in Terr’s human eyes more prominent. Her heart twisted with equal parts anger and loss. She wanted to either wrap Terr into her arms or shake him and demand he return to the person he’d been in the past, the mischievous and gentle man she once relied on. She wanted to grab his hand and run away from the Research Department, away from the institution that had hardened his skin and soul. She desperately wanted to shield him from Director Vesar, that venomous authority who twisted everything he touched.
But the hidden entrance phased solid. The holding area’s red-veined midnight enveloped her. And reality hit home.
Even if she tried to help him, Agent Terrokk didn’t want her help. He’d been altered beyond return.
The metal bar outside the corridor scraped. The Research Department’s blinding white light flooded in. And Amara stepped outside the Aviator’s isolated unit, shivering despite the warmth.