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Following the comm device’s beacon, I piloted the RTC into the dunes veering into no-man’s land. As I would have predicted, Stephanie had avoided the travel lanes and headed away from the cities.
Drawing from main and auxiliary electrical sources, I pushed all power to the hyperdrive, exceeding recommended limits. Warning sensors screamed. I switched them off and calculated how long the hovercraft could operate in the red zone before I drained both batteries and burned out the hyperdrive. If I had to chase Stephanie much farther, the vehicle likely wouldn’t make it. The guy I’d stolen it from would not be happy when he got his hovercraft back. If he got it back. But I couldn’t worry about that when Tempest’s life hung in the balance.
Every second counted. Stephanie wouldn’t waste time. She’d do the job, document the kill, and get out.
That she’d remained stationary so long suggested her plans might have gone awry. While Stephanie might have tossed the comm device from the vehicle and I pursued a dead end, I’d bet my money on Tempest. She’d find a way to throw a wrench into the works. A crafty fighter, she wouldn’t make it easy for Stephanie.
When she’d sensed danger, she’d snuck aboard a ship bound for Sajave—almost eluding me. Her trail of false clues had had me chasing my tail all over DC. I’d almost missed the ship by the time I figured out where she was headed. She’d had the instinct and foresight to record the executive’s death, copy the vid, and hide the dupes—one set cleverly hidden in plain sight.
She was shrewd, smart, and sexy and gave a hell of a blowjob.
But could she outwit a cyborg enforcer with C-Force training? God, I prayed so.
* * * *
Adrenalin started pumping when I spotted the RTC. I circled the vehicle, surveying the entire area, before landing my hovercraft. There was no sign of Tempest or Stephanie. Before exiting my RTC, I switched to battle mode. Muscles bulked up, and nanos activated the polymer in my synthetic skin, forming a near-impenetrable armor. From the holster under my arm, I withdrew my weapon.
My blaster wouldn’t stop an armored cyborg, but hopefully it could slow her down until backup arrived. C-Force would have to fry her circuits with a focused EMP-emitter.
I crossed my fingers Stephanie didn’t have one of those weapons, or I’d be in deep shit.
I exited and cautiously approached the abandoned RTC. Peering through the window, I spotted Tempest’s bag on the rear seat. The beacon originated from inside the bag. Her comm device was there. I shut off the signal to minimize distractions.
I pinged Quint I’d arrived at the scene and set out.
Two sets of footprints, one leading, another trailing, led away from the RTC. I surmised the shallow front set belonged to Tempest who’d been ordered to march by the much heavier Stephanie who’d taken up the rear.
The strides of both sets lengthened, an indication they’d been running. Stephanie was chasing her. I pressed my lips together.
Then Tempest’s tracks vanished. Stephanie’s deep footprints, no longer running, continued through a swirly disturbance in the sand and up a massive dune.
My gut clenched as I stared at the single set of deep prints.
One set of prints. Only one. Stephanie’s. She had marched into the dunes to dispose of Tempest’s body.
I’m too late. Jesus Christ, I’m too late. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry.
All the things I could have, should have said to Tempest rushed through my mind as a red haze of grief, self-loathing, and anger washed over me. Stephanie had killed Tempest, but I was responsible. I’d failed to protect her. I’d failed to recognize the threat, failed to listen to my gut. Quint ordering me to the crash scene hadn’t sounded right, but because the command had come through another C-Force cyborg, I’d accepted it without question. Why hadn’t I contacted Quint while Stephanie was still there?
You’ll pay, Stephanie. You’ll pay.
Gripping my blaster, I followed the tracks up the huge dune. Before reaching the crest, I dropped to my stomach and crawled on elbows and knees to the top and peered over. The tracks led down the dune and up the next.
Long fucking way to a carry a body. Why not bury Tempest by the RTC? Stephanie needed a fast and clean getaway. In the middle of nowhere, she could have buried the body anywhere. Nobody would have found it.
Unless she hadn’t killed her.
Could Tempest have gotten away? Was Stephanie searching for her? But why was there only one set of prints? Still, hope sprouted like the spurt of sand to my right. She’s still alive. I have to believe that. I crawled over the dune and rolled down the side. When I was certain I couldn’t be seen, I stood up.
“You can’t escape! I’m going to find you!” Stephanie’s angry, frustrated shout came from the other side of the next dune .
Tempest is alive! She’s alive! That’s my girl. Run, Tempest, run. I’m coming.
I charged down the dune and up the next, dropping to my stomach before the crest. Scooting on elbows, I peered over.
An armored and armed Stephanie marched in the depression between the dunes. No sign of Tempest—thank god. I shouted, “Throw down your weapon, Stephanie! It’s over!”
Instead of surrendering, she dropped to the ground, rolled, and fired a volley of shots. I ducked as alien sand exploded around me. She continued to rapid-fire, whipping up a whiteout. A plasma stream sizzled by my head. Fuck, that was close! Scorched, blackened alien bodies speckled the white sand.
Squinting through the fog, I saw her sprinting along the depression. “Stephanie, halt!”
She whirled around to fire, and I squeezed off a shot. The blast hit her in the chest, the force knocking her off her feet. I darted along the dune then dove just before the sand exploded in a spray, leaving more aliens dead.
On the run again, Stephanie zig-zagged in the valley between the dunes. She had to know she couldn’t get away. She had to know I wouldn’t give up.
I followed, running parallel along the peak. I aimed, firing a blast. She stumbled but didn’t fall. As I gained on her she fired back, missing me, but hitting the sand and engulfing me in a cloud and leaving more aliens dead. When I could see, she’d widened the gap.
From my vantage point atop the hill, I could have shot into the sand and blinded her in a whiteout, but I couldn’t sacrifice the lives of innocent aliens.
On the move, Stephanie twisted around to blast me but tripped over a mound and did a face-plant.
There was a loud roar as sand clouded the air.
A dust devil sped along the depression straight for Stephanie. She rolled and fired into the tornado. It spun faster, drawing in more and more sand, swelling to an enormous size.
She leaped up and tried to run, but the whirling funnel engulfed her and then carried her high in the air, higher than the towering windmills, higher than the seven-story city walls, higher than an RTC flew.
And then the whirling funnel cloud stopped spinning and went slack. Sand rained on the dunes in a gentle mist, and Stephanie, screaming, tumbled from the sky like a rock.
She hit the ground with a thud.
I sprinted down the dune. Sand continued to fall.
Stephanie’s dead, sightless eyes stared up at the sky. She lay on bare stone, as if the alien had cleared a landing pad. Neck broken, her head twisted at an unnatural angle.
Fuck. Quint would have preferred her to be taken alive to be interrogated. I’d have some explaining to do. I’d worry about that later.
“Tempest! It’s Benjamin! It’s safe now. Tempest! Can you hear me?” She couldn’t have gotten far on foot. I shouted her name again and then listened.
I then heard a scratching, shuffling noise. I spun around. The mound that had tripped Stephanie moved! A human hand poked out.
I fell to my knees and frantically dug with my hands. My fingers touched a solid form covered in rough fabric. I dug faster and then grabbed ahold of her shoulders and pulled her out. Tempest was covered in sand but very much alive.
“Stephanie t-t-tried to kill me!” She choked.
“She can’t hurt you now. She’s dead.” I hugged Tempest tight. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah.” She let out a shuddering breath against my neck.
Still armored, I reverted to my civilian form. I pushed the hood off her head and ran my hands over her shoulders, back, and legs, checking for injuries, reassuring myself she was unharmed. I brushed the sand from her face.
“I’m covered in aliens,” she said.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
She nodded. “Yeah, but it was a close one.” Then she laughed.
It wasn’t at all funny, but a chuckle erupted from me, and then we were both doubled over in side-splitting relief.
When we sobered, I clasped her shoulders and peered into her eyes. “I’m never letting you go again.”
“I like the sound of that,” she replied. “But what about your mission on Earth?”
“I’m not going back. I doubt I could if I wanted to. I’m pretty sure my cover has been blown, but, even if it wasn’t, I still wouldn’t go back there. I let you down. I promised if you trusted me, no harm would come to you, and you were almost killed. I swear on my life that will never happen again.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “It’s my fault. I should have figured out something was fishy sooner.”
“How could you have known?” C-Force hadn’t.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you. I had an informant at Geo-Tech.”
I sighed. “Stephanie.” Easy guess now.
“Stephanie.” She nodded. “I hadn’t met her face-to-face until I arrived on Sajave. She fed me information. Tidbits at first. Then more significant things. I only discovered she was a cyborg with C-Force when I got here. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish connecting the dots. The fact is, if she worked for C-Force, she couldn’t be working for me. However, C-Force wouldn’t have revealed the kind of information she had passed on, so she couldn’t have been working for you guys, either. That leaves—”
“Kathryn Jodane,” I said. “Do you have any other informants I should worry about?” For sure, if we’d had any inkling Stephanie had been passing any info, warning bells would have gone off.
Tempest hunched her shoulders. “No one who matters since my position has been, uh, terminated. I had one contact at MORE.” She scowled. “And one at SEW Solutions—who never bothered to inform me the company was dumping hazardous waste instead of recycling. A few at some smaller companies.”
“You’d better give me a list,” I said.
I pulled her into my arms again and hugged her tight. She lifted her head, and our lips met in a deep, life-affirming kiss. It would be a long time before I got over how close I’d come to losing her. I rested my forehead against hers. “How did you get away from Stephanie?”
“The sand saved me.” She closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed. “Stephanie was shooting at me.” She opened her eyes. “Then a dust devil came out of nowhere, swept me up, and dropped me here.”
I jerked and sucked in a breath. “You could have been killed.” Like Stephanie. Jesus.
“I was afraid I was going to be. But it all happened so fast.” She touched her pink face with a reddened hand. “I have abrasion burns from being inside the dust devil. But I’m alive! Anyway, it deposited me here. Stephanie was yelling. I didn’t have a chance of outrunning her, so I hid.” She fingered her collar. “I pulled the hood of your jacket over my head and burrowed into the sand, hunching over to create an air pocket.”
Clever, clever lady. But I shuddered at the idea of the dust devil picking her up and dropping her. Too many close calls in one day. Too many close calls period. None of this should have happened.
“I intended to hide until she got past me and then run for the RTC. Then I heard blaster fire. A lot of blaster fire. I heard you yelling at her. And then you called my name, and I figured it was safe to come out.” She paused. “You said she was dead...you shot her?”
I shifted my gaze to the body she hadn’t seen yet. “Would it bother you if I had?”
“No. She tried to murder me.”
“Stephanie is dead, but I didn’t kill her. She shot at me. I fired back. I hit her a few times, but she was armored, so the blast only knocked her down. The sand killed her.”
Tempest blinked. “The alien did? How?”
“The same way it saved you. A dust devil picked her up. It carried her way the fuck into the sky and dropped her. She broke her neck in the fall.” Even an armored cyborg couldn’t survive having his or her neck snapped. I swept my gaze over the calm, motionless dunes. The air had cleared, leaving the sky bright cyan blue.
“Can I see?”
“The body?”
She nodded.
“Over here,” I beckoned, and we tromped a hundred meters to Stephanie’s crumpled body. Besides the obvious broken neck, one leg bent at an angle legs didn’t bend. “It scares the crap out of me to think this could have happened to you,” I said.
She eyed the body and then surveyed the dunes. “The alien sand knows who’s on its side and who isn’t. Who’s dangerous, and who isn’t. I suspect it’s been observing us a lot longer than Geo-Tech has been studying it. I caught the gist that Gayle and Breeze believe it’s telepathic. I think it is, too. I’ll bet it knows a whole lot more about humans and our intentions than anyone could guess.”
“You could be right.” Geo-Tech had proven the sand was an intelligent life-form, so it had the ability to act with deliberation. Every time Stephanie had shot into the sand, she’d killed thousands of tiny aliens.
It certainly appeared the dust devil had retaliated in self-defense.
“When I discovered Stephanie worked for the president, I was stunned,” she said. “I could hardly believe it. C-Force service is such a noble pursuit, but she chose to work for Jodane? It’s hard to fathom. But then, maybe, like me, she didn’t understand what she was getting into, and by the time she did, she couldn’t get out.”
I shook my head. “She’s not like you. Did you kill anybody for Jodane?”
“No! Of course not. I would never do that.”
“Stephanie was willing to. You may not have been her first hit. We need to find out how many others may have died at her hand. It’s also critically important to discover if Stephanie was compromised after enlisting in C-Force or if she’d been in Jodane’s camp all along and entered as a mole.” If one spy had gotten in, there might be others.
Tempest looked at me. “Stephanie told me she’d attended C-Force Academy with you, Tack Grayson, and Axel Vander.”
I shook my head. “No. Tack, Axel, and I did graduate together, but Stephanie wasn’t in our group. She didn’t join the academy until a decade later.”
“I knew that didn’t seem right!”
Stephanie shouldn’t have known the five of us had been in the same academy class. What else might she have learned and passed on to Jodane? She was dead, so we’d never find out.
“The sand eliminated a threat—and I can’t blame it for that—but we lost the ability to get answers to a lot of questions. Quint will conduct a full internal audit, but we may never fill in all the gaps.”
“Bane!”
Speak of the devil. In full body armor, Quint marched over the top of the dune, accompanied by a team of cyborgs.
“The cavalry has arrived.” I wrapped an arm around Tempest.
She squeezed my waist. “The cavalry has already been here.”
Quint approached and swept the scene with laser-sharpness, analyzing the situation. Born blind, he’d received cybernetic eyes upon enlistment and transformation. He couldn’t see the way ordinary humans did or even cyborgs with visual mods like Tack Grayson—he saw much, much more. Even I didn’t know the full range of his abilities.
“You appear to have the situation under control,” Quint said and then shifted his gaze to the body.
“He didn’t kill her. The sand did!” Tempest burst out.
“As the body position suggests,” he said. “I’m glad you’re all right, Ms. Waters. We were worried about you.” He then focused on me. “Where did you get the RTC?”
“I hijacked it.”
Quint nodded. “That would explain the stolen hovercraft alert.” He motioned to Gunner and Patton, two members of his team. “Clean this up. Transport the body to HQ.” Then he focused on us. “You two report to headquarters.”
