Time moved at an alarming rate from that point forward.
On the afternoon of August 14, 2071, we all gathered around the large front room of Val’s mansion. We checked our weapons once, twice, three times. We scoured over maps on our D-Ps, studying Delta’s Quadrangle, looking for ways in while waiting for Denver’s latest incoming.
We discussed how to get the cure from Cutler, who would take him out. Tomorrow night was go-time. That afternoon, everyone grew increasingly antsy but tried to hold it together.
On the periphery of my vision, sudden movement caught my attention. Leon had been standing by the grand fireplace, talking to Sebastian. As I watched, he swayed in slow motion, left then right, before his legs buckled, crumpling beneath him to the floor. Bas caught him before he landed. I rushed to Leon, taking his weight in my arms.
Laying him on the sofa quickly vacated, I inspected him. He was out cold. His eyes closed, skin pale and clammy, respiration a little haywire. It reminded me of the way he’d looked after we cut him down from the rope.
“What the fuck’s going on?” I barked at Doc Val.
She crouched beside him, scanning him with her D-P.
“It could just be exhaustion.” Farrow swept the hair off his brow.
I wished I could believe that, but one glance at Val and her tense face put an end to that notion.
“His pulse is reedy but stable,” Val said. “Good O2 levels. No outward presentation of the infection.”
“Yet. You mean yet.” I grabbed her wrist in a punishing hold.
She didn’t try to pull away from me, which was a good thing. I was liable to snap her bones in half. “All the data I researched on the virus and the special strain injected in Leon supports what CEO Cutler has told you. His infection will not become live until tomorrow, midnight. I specifically engineered it that way.”
“Can it be triggered any other way?”
She looked away from me.
“Answer me, goddammit!”
“No. There was no one else working on this. Cutler may be a political genius—”
“Tyrant,” Cannon spit out.
“But his is not a scientific mind. He could never have advanced the infection that far without my aid.”
“Well, thank our lucky fucking stars for that.” I released her to clasp both of Leon’s hands. “So now what?”
“We monitor him. This is probably a side effect of the virus filtering into his body.”
I bowed over him, breathing slowly to hold my sobs deep inside my chest. “Please—” I broke off. I kissed each of his fingers, both of his palms. He didn’t respond. “Please tell me he’s going to wake up again.”
“Oh my God,” Liz whispered.
“I can’t say for certain, Darke. I’m—”
I reared up. “Don’t you fucking say you’re sorry! Don’t you dare. If you value your life at all, you will shut the hell up and get away from me right…fucking…now.”
Farrow and Cannon pulled Val away. I hunched over Leon, covering him.
“If I can say one thing?” Dr. Val asked.
I nodded my assent.
“I’d like to monitor his vitals on the hour.”
I must’ve growled or something because she stood straighter, holding her D-P with all the medical modules out to me.
“Or you can do it. I’ll show you how. I also think it might be a good idea to quarantine Leon. You won’t want to risk anyone else’s lives.”
Lots of grumbles resounded, but I tucked Leon against my chest and stood. “Fine. And I’ll be quarantined with him in our room.”
“And I’ll be taking watch in the hall,” Liz said.
“So will I,” Linc joined in.
“And Blondie and me,” Cannon volunteered.
Sebastian rose last to stand beside the others.
They all followed me out the door with my precious cargo. I grabbed Val’s D-P on the way. I thought my knees would buckle like Leon’s had, not because of his slender form in my arms but from the family surrounding me. The friends who didn’t give a shit about any infection. The people who would always fight for my man.
* * *
The intervening hours were interminable but not wasted. I cherished every moment with Leon throughout the night and into the next day, even though he never so much as moved. His stillness terrified me. In the absence of anything else, I tried willing him awake, willing him as I said I wouldn’t. I begged him to open his eyes. He never did.
Talking to him in a low voice, I took those hours to tell him all the unimportant little things about me that I could think of—stupid shit I’d have died of embarrassment over had he been awake and listening. That my favorite color was gold because it reminded me of the glinting specks in his eyes. How I wished he’d wear those godforsaken threadbare cutoffs for me alone. That I wished I could sing like my mother had or play saxophone like my father, simply so I could put to music the way he made me feel so alive. That he was so sexy, he made me speechless; that he was so loving to those who’d earned his loyalty, I was humbled.
I lay next to him, placing his head in the crook of my shoulder, while I whispered the most important things to him. How I’d spent almost every night since I first met him dreaming about him. How he enthralled me with his courage and his heart and his soul. That his desire to look out for me hit me as hard as his desire to be with me as my lover.
I held his hands, caressed his face, cooled his skin. I even managed to catch some shut-eye when sheer exhaustion snuck up on me and pulled me under.
A soft knock on the door woke me to instant alertness. I checked on Leon. Still unconscious. Pulling on a pair of pants, I edged the door open to find Cannon pacing outside.
I left the door ajar and joined him.
“Cutler knows we’re here.”
“Here in Delta or here with Val?”
“Delta.” He stopped marching and hauled back to punch the wall. Eyeing the cracked door, he halted his fist just before he made contact.
I bit out a harsh curse. “Do you think Denver—?”
“No.”
“Val?”
“No. I don’t. You know I don’t trust most people as far as I can fucking throw them, but I got a feeling about them, Darke. Besides, there are eyes and ears everywhere.” He backed up against the opposite wall. “There’s more. Lots of shit’s going down in Delta.”
“Care to elaborate?” Like I really wanted to know. He rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Other names have been released. There are about twenty more right here in Delta getting ready to unleash the virus tonight at midnight. Surprise.”
“He’s backed us into a corner.” I didn’t show Cannon’s restraint, slamming my fist into the wall.
“It’s bad, man. Everywhere. Riots in the last CO-held Territories. Names and faces of all the infected on the promos. Cutler says he’ll inoculate every citizen who turns in a rebel. And vaxes for the whole extended family of the person who captures the biggest rebel crew.”
“That would be us.” The hope for a cure had just turned into a tool to defeat the Revolution—and us. Despair roiled all the way down to my stomach. I thought I’d retch all over the carpet. I must’ve looked like it, too, because Cannon took a step toward me. I held it in one more time, warding him off with my hands raised. “You shouldn’t come any closer, just in case.”
“As if I give a fuck about that bullshit. You’re gonna make it. So is Leon.”
I tried to believe his confident words, the same ones I’d been repeating to Leon. “It’s at critical mass now.”
“Yep.”
“What time is it?” I asked.
“Sixteen hundred hours.”
“Eight more to go. Any word from Denver?”
Cannon crossed his arms over his chest. “Nope.”
“I need to know as soon as he makes contact.” I finally straightened, having conquered the churning nausea in my gut.
“How’s he doing?” He nodded toward the bedroom.
“Same.”
“Darke—”
“Don’t…” I met his gaze. “Man to man, don’t feed me any lines right now. Just tell me when we get word from Denver so I can be ready to move out.”
He pushed out his fist and then opened his fingers at the last moment. Our hands met with a loud clap.
“Beb?” A guttural voice escaped from the bedroom. Leon’s voice.
A wide grin bloomed across Cannon’s face as he grabbed my shoulder and pushed me inside.
Leon sat in the middle of the bed. I crawled up in front of him, taking his lips in a ferocious kiss that seared me to my soul. He leaned back with a gasp.
“What? You act like you haven’t seen me in days.” Confusion and disorientation wafted from him in thick clouds.
I didn’t answer. Instead, I placed my hands on the sides of his face and kissed him more slowly, letting my tongue linger against his inside the wet heat of his mouth. Leon awakened completely. He grasped the back of my head, returning my kisses. On his knees, he rubbed against me, all that sleek tawny skin against my steel-hard muscles. Blinking, he pulled his lips from mine with a soft suck. He was seemingly unaffected by whatever had laid him unconscious for more than twenty-four hours, as if he’d just woken from a long, restful sleep.
I remembered then stories of people who were at death’s door experiencing a few last golden hours of vitality. I swallowed through the stone in my throat, whispering nonsense in between kisses I placed on his shoulders up to his cheeks.
“What happened?”
“You passed out downstairs. Almost twenty-four hours ago. Val thought it best to quarantine you. I stayed.”
“You’re just determined to get yourself killed.” His fingers trailed to the seat of my pants and he squeezed my ass. “Bad timing, eh? Mais yeah, now I got you to myself.” He peeked at me through the tumble of hair, licking his bottom lip.
“We’re headed to Company Headquarters as soon as the sun sets.”
“A couple more hours. I’ll take ’em.” Sliding his hands inside my pants, he sent his fingers down my cleft.
“Leon…” I groaned.
“Shh. I already know every’ting you wanna tell me.”
“Not everything.” I disengaged his hands and eased off the bed.
His head tilted to the side. “You gave me a bath while I was out of it.”
“Yeah.” I smiled. Heat surfaced on the skin of my chest and face.
“Hmm. What else? Oh, you love me.”
“Yes, I love you, Leon.” My heart began to pound, and I returned to him after shedding my pants. “I love you,” I murmured against his mouth.
Those final hours with him awake were treasures. Talking, savoring soft touches, making the gentlest love…before it became more and more difficult to ignore the enormity of what might transpire.
In the end, we twined around each other and held on through the pain of knowing we’d be parted soon. Possibly forever.
We were both aware of the clock counting down. The moment daylight turned to dusk, Liz peered inside.
“Denver’s ready. We’ve got an in.”
“Give me ten.”
I dressed in black from head to toe. Leon handed me my guns.
“You take one.” I laid the butt of a Smith & Wesson into his hand. “It’s better than your Colt. We’ll get you a proper firearm when this is over.”
“I can’t. I’m not…” He holstered the weapon at my side. “I’m not a killer. Even if they’re makin’ me one.”
I draped my arms around him, hating the armor and artillery between us. “No, you’re not. You are a survivor. Val is staying with you. She’s the most capable of—”
“Taking care of me?”
“Give me two hours, angel, and I’ll be back.”
He nodded without saying a word.
I pushed him against the wall. “Just need you to be sure.” I covered his mouth with mine. “This beats for you.” I pulled his hand to my heart. “This will die without you. I love you.”
“Je t’aime.” His eyelashes lowered over his eyes.
Twisting my fingers in his hair, I guided his head up. “And I need you to know, this is not good-bye. It’s not the end. We are not finished.” Every word I said cracked my voice.
“Bien sur.” Reaching up, he fervently kissed me. “It’s not good-bye. Just à tout à l’heure.”
Leaving him was the hardest thing I’d ever done. As my boots hit the top of the stairs, I turned back. He watched from the hall, trying to hide the haunted look in his eyes.
No more words were said. Nothing else was possible. We had covered every contingency. All that was left was winning his life back.
* * *
We performed our good-luck rituals before heading out of the mansion. Liz double- and triple-checked her Eagles. Linc patted a small pocket where he had something secret tucked away. Cannon rubbed his wedding band around his finger three times while Nathaniel slipped his fingers along the suede cuff of his wrist. It was all meant to ward off bad omens that could fuck with our mission. We’d need all the luck we could get.
I closed my eyes. All I thought about was Leon, briefly kissing my fingertips and bringing them to my heart. Then I centered myself as the focal point for the feelings of my comrades, getting a read on each and every one of them. This group was tight. Everyone was solid, as determined as me.
On the way into city center and the Quadrangle, we skirted every possible tracking device. The night was as black as soot, a dusting of Delta’s permanent cloud cover keeping the moon under wraps. If our faces were captured on one of the many cameras lining the streets, our mission would be dead in the water.
Unrest was alive and well in the streets of S-2 and S-1. Unlike several days ago, the civilian presence was as strong as that of the Corps soldiers. We remained in the cover of blackness, winding around the high walls to a section that faced the unpopulated side of Delta. Denver assured us he’d make sure this particular piece of the Quad wall was unmanned, that the razor wire on top would be cut to provide an opening, that the wire itself would be shorted out from its electrical current.
Such assurances meant little to me.
We scaled the four-meter-high defensive barricade on ropes hung from grappling hooks easily enough, but time was already whittling away too fast. I was the last one through the small aperture in the circular death trap of barbed wire. I skimmed down the opposite side, landing soundlessly on my feet.
With silent motions, Linc herded us along the interior wall toward CO HQ. We listened to the growing disturbance coming from outside the Quad, waiting for entry into Company Headquarters. The service entrance steel doors we huddled against wouldn’t budge unless seriously blown up, or if Denver followed through with his promises to deliver us straight to Cutler in his eagle’s nest.
During the minutes that elapsed, we tested out comms links to one another and quadruple-checked our rounds. Even though I wanted to focus solely on getting the cure for Leon and getting the hell out—regardless of anyone else’s fate—I couldn’t forget my comrades. The mule-headed idiots who had pledged their lives and love and honor to save Leon.
The Revolution had brought us to this point. I scanned the faces of Liz and Linc, Nathaniel and Cannon, Darwin, then lastly Sebastian and Farrow. They were cool and calm, willing to risk their lives to save Leon’s, ready to die in the fight for freedom.
“For Leon, my man.” Cannon held out his fist. I hit it with my own.
Similar strong words echoed all around. Their conviction instilled new confidence in me.
The door opened without a sound. Denver, his hair in a long braid, stood inside the black marble corridor. He waved us in. Shivers of excitement raced up my spine, replacing the chills of dread. Once we were inside, we all locked our guns on Denver.
He huffed a dry laugh, swinging the door shut behind us. “You all have trust issues.”
“Hardly surprising given your track record.” Liz lowered her weapon only when he raised his hands to show they were empty, not that he couldn’t go for the wicked-looking blade glinting along his thigh.
Denver scanned his thumbprint on a wall module and moved us into an empty room.
“We wait here,” he said. “Cutler’s surrounded by advisers and para at the moment. Too many threats.”
“Then he better be quick about it,” I hissed. “I’m not a very patient man tonight.”
“I could tell you a story to pass the time.” Denver lounged against a long table.
“Not interested.”
“Not a man of curiosity, warrior Darke? But I find you very curious.”
“I’m a killer.” I flickered back to what Leon had said. I was a killer. Tonight I would be again, asking very few questions, if any.
“I’m interested.” Sebastian sidled up to him.
“Why don’t you just blow him while you’re at it, baby boy?” Liz wryly intoned.
Sebastian had changed during the course of our mission. Where before he would’ve blushed and stammered, now he merely rolled his eyes.
Denver’s dark eyes widened at the suggestion. He ran the backs of his fingers down Sebastian’s arm. “Hmm, sweet one. For you I will tell the tale of how I came to be here.”
“How the fuck long is this gonna take?” My nerves started jangling all around.
“Until we get to the end, yours being the end of the CEO.”
“You could just KO him again,” Cannon suggested.
Ignoring Cannon, Denver continued. “I used to be just like your Leon, Darke.” His black gaze drilled into me. “A rent boy in Nu Territory, many years ago. There was one problem: In addition to selling my ass to the highest bidder, my pimp whored me out for cutting games. He assured all my johns I enjoyed getting sliced, even got off on it. So this happened.” He shifted his face toward the light of a halo, and his ghostly scars shimmered.
“I didn’t have a warrior or friends to take me away from the street corners, where men practically stripped me bare in public so they could ram their cocks up my ass after they added their notch on my face. That was the real game to them. These scars are how many times I was used against my will simply so I could eat one meal a day and perhaps sleep on a mattress instead of a piece of pavement a few nights a week.”
His story made me feel sick. Cold waves of horror from everyone else drowned me.
“One day, Cutler rescued me. He was on a political junket in Nu. Of course, he meant only to make a public spectacle of the man reaming my ass out in the open, yet he took me under his wing. He didn’t use me, not that way. Not ever, not to this day. He merely made sure I cleaned up after him, kept the deviant homosexuals at bay, and used my rage for his betterment—well out of the public eye.”
“Christ Almighty, Denver. I never knew.” Linc stared at the man.
“Why would you? I am simply your father’s bodyguard.” Denver smiled. “I do appreciate the times you have spoken to me in the language of my people, though.”
“What about the tats?” Sebastian asked in a soft voice, his fingertip trailing along Denver’s neck.
“The dragon tattoo was so I could rise up one day and tear apart those who used me. It’s taken ten years of planning to get to this point. Trust me”—his hard gaze never wavered—“I killed the rest of them. Over the years, as silent as a reaper. I made sure they all knew why before I slit their throats wide open. Cutler exploited me in a different way. Though he was my savior, he was also my captor. You are not the only people who seek revenge. I will make sure this is seen out.”
“What did he do to you?” I asked.
“It’s not what he did, but what he made me do.” Denver focused on Sebastian, carefully caressing his cheek and forehead as if marveling at the unmarred beauty of him. His lips quirked when he said, “Ah, and Cutler did change my name. He got tired of pronouncing my given name, Deyama.”
“Deyama?” I held out my hand. “A pleasure to meet a fellow rebel.”
Silence followed our handshake until Sebastian pulled that darkly handsome, scarred face into a kiss. Denver lifted Sebastian to him, winding his hand down his back, following every passionate move of his mouth.
They were interrupted by the sound of a D-P.
Breaking free of the blazing kiss, Denver spoke into his mouthpiece. “What?” He held up a hand so we would be silent. “He’s what?” His mouth tensed. “Got it.”
He signed off and turned to address us. “Civilians are inside the Quad. Cutler let them in. They know rebels are here. They know it’s you. Cutler’s making a break for it.”
That was our go.
When we burst from HQ’s main doors, the formerly quiet Quad was a wall-to-wall, foaming-at-the-mouth insurrection. Black ops or not, there was no fucking way we’d keep our cover in the fomenting crowd. Troops and civvies meshed together. One group shoving, kicking, screaming their way forward, the other shouting, shooting, sending them back toward the gaping gates.
Denver came over the earpiece. “Need to locate Cutler in this melee.”
Ditto that, except things got real hairy, real fast. If we didn’t want to be compromised, we needed a way through.
A fist flew at my face and I knocked it aside. Guns rattled off from every direction. The black night was lit by bright pops of live ammo. We ducked and ran.
“Diversionary tactics.” The order came down from Linc. Rules of engagement were in place. We couldn’t—we wouldn’t—engage the civilians. Cutler had outfoxed us again.
But we sure as fuck engaged the Corps para, who roamed like black bugs throughout the rebellious crowd. This was not a time for mediation or trying to talk people into seeing our side of shit.
Nathaniel wielded his machete. Liz let her sniper rifle guide her. Linc and Sebastian pulled up the rear, and we all forged forward.
Drones dropped out of the sky, popping out enemy fire that razed through fighters on both sides with no consideration whatsoever for civilian life.
We made it to the ramparts of Corps Command. Another endless round of drone machine guns chewed up the pavement just in front of our feet. Above the whistles of bullets, Darwin let loose an almighty squeal that almost burst my eardrums.
“Tone it down, soldier,” I commanded. “Undercover, remember?”
“They’re not after us,” she replied.
“What?”
She shoved her D-P in my face. “The fine, upstanding citizens of Delta T are chasing Cutler. They’re following him, not us. Look! They’re uplinking his location to the D-P network. Denver, you old dog, you opened the airwaves to all?”
There was a bright spark of white from his teeth as he smiled in the dark.
“I’ll be goddammed.” Cannon watched Cutler’s infrared sat image like a predator on the scent.
My mouth hung open in shock. For once, an InterNations-wide manhunt was not targeting us.
Darwin snickered, gently pressing her fingertips to my jaw.
“MOVE OUT!” I shouted.
“Aye, Captain. Where to?” Liz asked.
“What’s his position, Darwin?”
“En route to the medical building.”
“I’ve got to cut loose here.” Denver broke free of our group. “I’ll see you inside. Just follow the trail.”
He disappeared like a wraith into the masses. But as we prepared to follow, the masses parted for us. They created a tunnel of human bodies, pushing us forward, shouting us on. Guns clicked all around, but they weren’t aimed at us. As another formation of drones banked over the Quad, gunfire crackled into the air.
Plane parts rained down in showers of hot metal. Sparks spit at our feet. We blasted open the door of the med building with all weapons firing. Crouched as one, tracing the pristine white surrounds, we tracked blood and sweat and death inside the hushed emptied enclosure.
An open door at the end of the hallway beckoned us. Cold white light shined from within. I took point with everyone else at my flank, spreading out.
We entered the room.
The sight of Cutler, sweat-free and smug, reached down into my gut and jerked me upright. Our almost victory over him had backfired. He’d led us exactly where he wanted us.
Behind him, Doc Val was strapped to a chair, at gunpoint.
Beside her, bound and gagged, was Leon.