Talan did his best to ignore that he had less than an hour left with Zoe.
She would leave this world and go home to use her gifts to help end the war. He’d stay here and keep hunting for the Taken. They both had jobs to do, and those jobs just happened to be light years away.
He found her hand as he drove and clung to it like some kind of frightened child.
He didn’t want to lose her. He cared about her too much.
Hell, he loved her.
She shifted in her seat. “Are you okay?”
He wasn’t, but she didn’t need to know that. It was his job to show her courage and optimism. She needed him to be fearless and certain of her path so that she might be too.
Talan forced himself to give her a reassuring smile. “I’m fine. It’s almost over now. You’ll be safe soon.”
She squeezed his hand tighter. “I don’t know how living on a war torn planet can be safe, but I know for a fact that it’s not safe here—not so long as Krotian is alive.”
“He can’t reach you on Loriah. The Builders are guarded. You’ll be free from worry so your mind can fly the way it was meant to do.”
She fell silent as they neared the coordinates of the next window. The area wasn’t as far away from civilization as he would have liked, but it was in an industrial park with businesses that were closed down for the night.
He bounced over a pair of railroad tracks and took the next left into the parking lot of a plumbing supply warehouse. He parked the truck near the chain link fence surrounding the rear of the building and texted Radek that they’d arrived.
The man was still a few minutes away, but the way things had gone with this job, Talan wanted his friend watching his back. Just in case.
Krotian would know about the window too, but that didn’t mean he knew that they’d found both halves of the data sphere and were sending her home. Since Krotian couldn’t be at every window, he had to pick and choose which ones to monitor.
Talan deeply hoped that this one had slipped his notice.
He unbuckled his seat belt and turned to Zoe. Security lights flowed in through the windows, painting one side of her face with a golden glow.
She was so damn pretty. He didn’t know how he was ever going to go a full day—much less the rest of his life—without seeing her face.
But he knew he would, because that was his job. His life. Even if he went back with her, they’d never be allowed to have a romantic relationship. Everyone would hate the idea of diluting her genius with the DNA of a destroyer. They’d all want her to have brilliant children who could ensure that the Raide were destroyed and no one else ever succeeded in invading their world again.
“What now?” she asked.
“I’m going to cut a hole in the fence so we can get back there when the window opens. We’ve got a few minutes until it’s go time.”
She looked down at her lap and the fabric sacks filled with the treasure her father had left her.
“What about this?”
“You’ll be arriving in a safe location inside protected Imonite territory. They won’t know exactly when you’re coming, but they know when every window opens and someone will be there, waiting for you.”
“I don’t know the language well enough to speak it.”
“It’s okay,” he reassured her. “We’re taught Earth languages as children. Someone there will know English.”
She clutched the sacks in her lap. “I don’t want to go. I’m terrified.”
“Just think of it as a grand adventure—one your father would have taken you on himself if he could have.”
“He always said this day would come, but I never thought it would be today, you know?”
Talan nodded. “I understand.”
“I wish you could come with me. I hate the idea of not knowing anyone there.”
His heart broke for her. For him too. He had to let the woman he loved go, knowing he’d probably never see her again. How did a man do that and still sleep at night?
He covered her hand with his, hoping to offer some small comfort. “I would go with you if I could, but my place is here.”
Tears shimmered in her dark eyes. “I guess it’s best to just get this over with, then. Tear off the bandage, so to speak.”
That’s not what Talan wanted—not even close. He wanted to linger with her here, in this quiet space where it was just the two of them, for as long as he could. But there was still work to do before the window opened.
“Come with me,” he told her. “I’m not letting you out of my sight until you’re through the window.”
She nodded and they both left the warmth of the truck. His tools were in the bed, and the sooner he used them to cut open the fence, the sooner they could come back to the truck and be alone together, if only for a few more minutes.
Zoe couldn’t stand goodbyes. She’d said enough of those to last a lifetime.
She didn’t know how she was going to let Talan go. He’d done so much for her—made her feel safe when her whole world was spinning out of control. How did a girl just get over a man like that?
She doubted it was even possible.
Rather than dwell on what she couldn’t change, she focused on what was right in front of her.
She sat on a weathered crate against the fence while Talan worked to clear the area where the window would open. It was filled with pallets loaded with heavy bags of grain and seed. He loaded one of the huge bags onto each arm and hauled them several yards away where he stacked them up again.
Whoever worked here was going to be confused as hell tomorrow when they saw all those heavy bags had been relocated for no apparent reason.
She pulled her coat closed against a gust of cold wind. The hard lumps of the data sphere halves thunked together inside her pockets.
Talan had swept her away from her father’s hidden workspace before she’d had time to play with the sphere her father had used his dying breath to tell her about. And now that she needed a distraction from her scary new life, it was right in her lap, ready to serve.
She pulled both pieces of the sphere from their separate bags and studied them side-by-side. She’d known when she’d first seen the second piece that it would fit, but now that she was looking closely, she understood what a marvel this invention was.
The tech was definitely not human, but it worked on the same principles of physics. Electrons still traveled along a conduit, but the storage device itself didn’t seem to use binary code like a computer would.
She still had so much to learn about Imonite tech, and while she wished she could do it here, at least there was something exciting waiting for her on the other side of that window.
Zoe fitted the two halves of the sphere together with a muted click. The reader she’d assembled—the one her father had obviously laid out for her to finish—was in her purse, waiting to be used.
She hesitated.
Talan had said that her father had stolen this sphere from his own people. That act wasn’t something she could imagine her dad even thinking about, much less doing. But what if she read what was on the device and it somehow proved her father was a thief?
She couldn’t stand the thought of tarnishing his memory like that.
Still, curiosity burned along the surface of her brain, demanding she take a little peek. After all, her mother had been killed for what she knew, and those secrets were supposed to be right here in Zoe’s palm, waiting for her.
How could she resist a temptation like that? How could she resist such a legacy?
She couldn’t. Like always, her curiosity got the best of her, driving her to act.
Zoe pulled the reader from her purse and held it in her palm. She let it fuel itself by pulling energy from her cells. The concept should have seemed alien, but she’d seen her father do it all her life. Talan had also powered his weapons in the same way.
As soon as she felt the tug of energy leaving her body, she recognized it—knew she’d done it before. This wasn’t her first time, though she’d never powered anything with as much pull as this reader had.
As soon as the device stopped drawing energy from her, she knew it was ready. With a deep breath and a quick wish for good luck, she settled the sphere into the cradle.
Nothing happened at first, but then the sphere started to spin. The speed picked up until it was whirling so fast that she couldn’t see any detail at all—it looked like one solid piece of dull metal, rather than individual components.
After a few seconds, the sphere came to a sudden stop and hovered there, suspended above the reader without touching it.
Nothing had been displayed. There were no images or text.
Maybe she’d put the reader together wrong, or maybe there was some part missing, like a screen.
She picked it up to see what might be the matter, and the instant her skin made contact with the base, a jolt streaked up her arm and lit her mind on fire.
Images exploded in her brain, along with knowledge and exacting sensory detail. She didn’t simply read what was on the sphere; she experienced it.
She saw plans for a weapon—one designed to target specific DNA sequences and eliminate them—but it was more than just seeing the plans. She remembered designing this weapon, though she’d never done so. She felt the hours she’d spent bent over a table, testing her theories to see which ones worked and didn’t. She felt the despair of failure over and over, followed by exhilaration of success when she finally found the ultimate solution.
This weapon was going to save her people. It was going to save the daughter she loved so deeply.
She had to get the information out of her head before the Raide reached her. They’d invaded and were on their way to her workshop. It was only a matter of time before they found her.
The only choice she had was to remove all memories of the weapon so no enemies could discover them and rip them from her mind.
So that’s what she did. To save her husband. To save her baby girl.
The sphere finally let go. Zoe sat back, breathing hard and shaking. It took a few seconds for her rattled mind to catch up, but she finally realized what she’d just witnessed.
These events and experiences were her mother’s, somehow turned into data and stored in physical form, just waiting for Zoe to find them—to feel them.
She could barely remember her mother, but now she knew how the woman thought and felt—at least a little glimpse of it. She had a brilliant mind and a sense of loyalty that ran deep, all the way to her bones. She didn’t see herself as a hero, but as a servant of her people—a people she believed deserved to be saved.
Zoe touched the device again in an effort to be closer to her mother. This time the events were more mundane, quieter. There were small glimpses of the life she’d lived, as well as the feelings of love and devotion she’d had for her husband and daughter.
By the time the rest of the memories played out in Zoe’s head, tears were streaming down her face. Her cheeks were wet and cold, and a harsh sob racked her body.
Mom had died to protect these plans and memories. Dad had stolen them to keep them safe from the Raide, and then told Zoe how to find them when it was her turn to step up to the plate.
This weapon was her family legacy. Her destiny. And now that the plans were in her head, she knew she could build it. There wasn’t a single doubt or question in her mind. The last few pieces of the puzzle Mom had left unsolved were well within Zoe’s ability.
Excitement trickled through her, making her burn with a sense of urgency. She had to tell Talan the good news.
She knew how to defeat the Raide. Not just on Loriah, but anywhere they attacked. She could free every race of people they’d enslaved—every world they’d conquered, every species they’d tortured.
Zoe tried to put the sphere into one of the soft bags, but her hands were shaking so hard, the metal ball slipped from her fingers and fell onto the ground. It rolled under the chain link fence and came to a stop against a clump of dead weeds.
She panicked, worried she’d broken it. All the effort her parents had gone to for her to possess this gift—all of the sacrifices they’d made—she couldn’t have ruined that through stupid clumsiness. Even though the information was inside her now, she still had to protect the source of it. No way could she let something so precious lie around for anyone to find.
She hopped down from the crate and slipped back through the hole in the fence. The sphere had only made it a few yards away, but the pavement was cold, hard and dirty. A lot could have happened to such delicate tech in a short distance.
“What are you doing?” Talan asked as he dropped another two heavy bags onto the growing pile.
“I dropped something.”
“Get back in here. It’s not safe.”
The surface of the sphere was gritty with dust, but nothing was broken or cracked.
Relief wrapped around her like a warm blanket. Her parents’ work was safe. She let out a long sigh. Her misty breath swirled out into the night.
And hit something solid. Something invisible.
She instinctively looked down and saw a trail of fresh footprints in the snow.
Krotian.
Immediately, Zoe’s heart froze with terror.
Every one of the secrets Krotian had been trying to discover were in her head now, waiting for him to dig them out.
The weapon could just as easily be used to kill humans or Loriahans as it could the Raide. One small adjustment, and everyone she knew here on Earth and everyone she’d met from Loriah could be wiped out.
Talan would die right along with them.
A deep sense of panic constricted around her. She couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not ever. She needed him.
She loved him.
That thought was almost as scary as the evil standing in front of her.
Zoe opened her mouth to scream a warning to Talan, but nothing came out. Fear had gripped her by the throat, choking off any sound she could have made.
“Zoe?” Talan’s voice was heavy with concern as he turned toward her. Toward danger.
The stakes were too high. She couldn’t think straight. Couldn’t breathe.
Flee! her frantic brain shouted.
Her shoes slipped on the snowy ground as she scrambled away from the Raide. She lost her balance and fell toward the fence.
Krotian appeared at the last second, catching her before she could land.
She couldn’t let him see her secrets, so she squeezed her eyes shut and fought to get free of his hard grip.
“Zoe!” Talan shouted. His boots pounded hard on the ground as he ran toward her.
Her flailing fists did no good against the hard contours of Krotian’s combat suit. All she did was bust open the skin on her knuckles and leave blood slickening his armor.
“Well now,” Krotian said. “I think we’ve played around enough, don’t you? Time to finish this.”
Talan shouted her name again, and the sound was filled with fear and the promise of punishment. But it was too late. She was already trapped inside the grip of a madman.
Krotian slammed his armored fist into her gut hard enough that she nearly puked. Her eyes popped open on reflex, and he was waiting for it.
As his gaze hit hers, Zoe’s world exploded into jagged shards of pain, but she had no air left to scream.