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“You work for C-Force?” she parroted.
I nodded. “I’m under deep cover in the administration.”
“Really? Really?” She released a shuddering sigh. The tension drained out of her, and I relaxed into a real embrace instead of a keep-her-from-clocking-me lock-hold.
She wrapped her arms around my waist. “I don’t understand...how long...how?”
“The president has been on C-Force’s watchlist since the campaign when she attempted to assassinate her opponent. An aide took the fall. We didn’t have enough evidence to charge Jodane, who by then, was the sitting president. I was sent inside to gather evidence.
“And then Breeze O’Day discovered the sand was an intelligent life-form. That made Jodane more dangerous because she’d gambled everything on Sajave and would do anything to keep colonization and development moving forward. Breeze feared the government would suppress the information about the sand; C-Force predicted they’d do a hell of a lot worse.”
“So her other cyborgs enforcers are C-Force, too?”
“No. They’re rogues who washed out of the program. But if Jodane hadn’t employed them, my placement wouldn’t have been possible.”
“So, you’ve never killed anybody?”
“In the line of duty with C-Force? Yes, I have. For Jodane, on her orders? No.”
“B-but what about the people from COG, who accused her of corruption. They just disappeared.”
“Exactly. They disappeared. C-Force issued them new identities and placed them in the protection program. I’m sorry for scaring you all those times, but I had to maintain my cover. I had a hunch from the start you weren’t a hard-core Jodane loyalist, but until I had proof, I couldn’t bring you into my confidence.” I sought her gaze. “Everything I told you last night was true.”
“About...your feelings.”
“Yes. The transformation did suppress my emotions, but they awakened when I met you. And that contributed to my caution, too. I had to guard against emotion influencing my judgment—especially since I was out of practice dealing with feelings.”
Sand swirled as an RTC flew over the wall and settled in a depression. The hatch peeled open, and two men and a woman bounded out. Tempest and I separated, and I shifted to block their view of her.
“What a storm, huh!” exclaimed one of the men as his group tromped up the path.
“Sure was,” Tempest replied to my dismay, and tried to step around me as the people came abreast of us. I motioned for her to stay put. She frowned but obeyed.
“I picked up these two who spent the night in their RTC.” The man motioned to the couple.
“Thank god, he came along!” the woman said. “We got stranded midway between two way stations. Sand clogged our RTC, and we crashed.” She glowered at her partner. “I told you we should have stopped sooner.”
I needed them to halt the chatter and proceed inside before they got a good glimpse of Tempest. We were too damned exposed out here. I hadn’t counted on her leaving the room! “Thankfully you were rescued. The way station here has plenty of vacancies inside now.” I nudged them along.
“Yeah, the other people weren’t so lucky,” the woman said.
“What other people?” Tempest asked. “Other people were stranded?” She looked at me. “We have to rescue them!”
“Not stranded. Killed,” the woman said.
“Oh god!” Tempest pressed a hand to her throat.
Dammit. I had to shut these people up and get her out of here.
The Good Samaritan said, “We flew over another RTC crash. The vehicle had exploded! The entire front cab was a charred hull. Blackened debris was scattered for miles. The passengers never had a chance.”
Tempest shook her head. “That’s awful. Those poor people.”
“I notified the authorities in Miestas, the closest town, and forwarded the coordinates of the crash site.”
Perfect.
“Such a tragedy,” Good Samaritan said. “Well, we’d better get inside and see about vacancies.” The guy saluted, and then the three of them tromped into the way station.
Finally!
“That could have happened to us!” Tempest shuddered. “We could have crashed and blown up!”
“RTCs don’t explode on impact,” I reassured her. “That only happens in the movies.”
“That one did!”
I had a lot more to explain but not while anyone else flying in could see her. “Let’s go inside.” I took her arm.
Sweepers had managed to clear a path around a couple of vehicles. Wheels were visible, but roofs were still topped high. When the owners opened the hatch, they’d be buried in an avalanche. Several other hovercraft were covered by mounds of sand.
As we marched toward the way station, she peered over her shoulder. “With regard to RTCs, which vehicle is ours?”
“The one that exploded.”
More answers would lead to more questions, so I refused to say another word until we got inside. She vibrated with suppressed curiosity as I whisked her through the empty lobby, past the desk clerk, and onto the elevator. I let it scan me and then we zipped up to our floor, and I hustled her to our suite.
On a ten scale, I’d rate the success of the mission thus far a solid eight. Tempest had encountered more people than I would have wished—zero was my target number—but that passersby had found her crashed vehicle already and reported the explosion was a serendipitous stroke of luck.
The suite door had no sooner slid shut than she confronted me. “What do you mean the RTC exploded? You said they didn’t explode! And how could that be our RTC anyway? How do you know our RTC isn’t buried outside in the lot?”
“When I left to get dinner last night, I programmed the RTC to fly away, and I rigged it to explode.”
Her jaw dropped. “What? Why?”
“So, when it was found, they would assume you had been killed.”
Eyes as large as moons, she clapped a hand over her mouth. “Same question. Why?”
“Because Jodane wants you dead. She ordered me to kill you.”
Her knees buckled. I grabbed her arm and led her to the sofa. I sat next to her and took her cold, clammy hand. “I’m sorry. I know it’s a shock.”
“Not as much of a shock as it should be. I always had a hunch it could come to this. That was my biggest fear. That’s why I wanted out.”
“This is why I wouldn’t let you check in under your name and get a retinal scan. I needed it to appear you’d flown into the storm and crashed. This is why you have to stay out of sight. You’re supposed to be dead.”
“But if RTCs don’t explode, then—”
“When authorities investigate the crash, they’ll immediately become suspicious, and your death will be ruled a homicide. Jodane will believe I carried out her order.”
“Does this mean I’m going into the Victim/Witness Protection Program?”
“C-Force’s version of it. How would you like to be a blonde?”
Her hands flew to her head. “I have to change my hair?” She looked shocked, and then her mouth twisted ruefully. “I guess changing my hair is a small price to pay for life.”
“I was teasing about the hair, but it may come to that when you return to Earth. Cosmetically altering your appearance—new hairstyle, spectacles—provides protective anonymity only if you’re around people who don’t know you well. Without facial alteration surgery, a mere cosmetic disguise won’t fool an identity scanner or close friends, family, or work associates. It would have sufficed here if no one had met you in person—but you attended Breeze’s show-and-tell and became the center of attention.”
“Breeze dragged me into it! And why didn’t you stop me then?”
“You would have done what I told you? Besides, Jodane hadn’t yet issued the hit.” The big reveal is what had provoked the president’s order.
“Then how will a mere disguise protect me on Earth?”
“You’ll be given a new identity, new job, new residence far from DC and your hometown. You should be able to disappear, provided you keep a low profile. Earth is much bigger and more populated than Sajave. You can’t ever set foot in DC or any place you used to live. You’ll have to sever contact with friends, family, associates.”
“I’ve already lost contact with everyone I used to know.” She frowned. “But, for how long?”
“For as long as Jodane remains in power and/or poses a threat. But at that point, you may wish to keep your new identity.”
She got up to pace around the sitting area. “So, basically, yesterday evening, Tempest Waters died.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes widened with alarm. “Besides contacting Geo-Tech, I sent a message to MORE this morning. They know I’m alive!”
“MORE never got it. I let the message to Breeze go through, but I hacked into MORE’s system and deleted your message before they could see it. Breeze and Gayle will keep your secret. I’ve already apprised my commander of the change in situation.”
“Your commander...Quint Stroud,” she said.
“Yes.”
“He threw you out when you showed up for my meeting with Breeze.”
“Maintaining my cover.” My mouth twitched. “If I’d pushed it, Axel and Tack would have beaten me to a pulp to maintain my cover.” And they would have enjoyed it. I sometimes rub people the wrong way.
“I’m glad you didn’t push it.” A faint blush tinted her cheeks.
Her words sent a shaft of warmth through me. We had so much business to settle, we hadn’t gotten around to us yet.
But then her sharp-eyed gaze snapped to my face. “How many of my messages did you read?”
“All of them. On the ship, I downloaded all your old messages. As of yesterday, I receive copies of all your incoming and outgoing communications, and those to and from the president aren’t delivered at all. They come to me. You had a message from Sandra Jodane. I deleted it. It’s best if you don’t acknowledge any messages from her.”
Her jaw dropped. Fury blazed in her eyes. “You decided on your own to do that? You hacked my device? Spied on me? You had no right! You asked me to trust you. Why couldn’t you trust me?”
“I was doing my job,” I said.
“As what, Jodane’s enforcer?” Her lip curled.
The lip curl, more than the accusation, cut me. “As a C-Force operative—who was protecting you. Would you prefer I let Jodane kill you? There may be actions for which I owe an apology, but this isn’t one of them,” I said, trying to control my anger. “I had to see what you were receiving and sending to further my mission—and to keep you alive. The fate of two planets hinges on C-Force’s success in gathering intel on the president. If that requires hacking into her corporate liaison’s electronic devices, then that’s what I’ll do.
“Furthermore, until I read those messages, I wasn’t sure whose side you were on. It wasn’t like I could ask you.”
Anger rising, I stood up. “And, for your information, your device had already been bugged! I removed the bugs before we landed on Sajave. If I hadn’t accessed your device, those bugs would still be there.” I couldn’t remove any spy chips on Earth because doing so would have alerted the perpetrator they’d been discovered. But since Sajave was so far from Earth, transmissions plausibly could get lost in space.
I’d forgotten what anger felt like. The objective observer catalogued the effects on my body—the surge of flight-or-fight hormones, increased respiration and heart rate, the rush of blood to my face, the heat. New emotional me resented her glowering, accusatory looks and insults.
“I need some air.” I strode for the door.
She pressed her hands to her stomach. “Bane...wait...”
“I’ll get breakfast.” I paused at the door. “Can I trust that you won’t leave the unit while I’m gone?”
She looked stricken. “I—I won’t leave. I promise.”
