Colliding Worlds Trilogy 01 - Collision (18 page)

After several feet, he paused and turned to Jax. “You coming or staying?”

Jax’s jaw visibly tightened. “Protecting our country is still my first priority. I feel like I can do that best where I’m at now. But I will go wherever you see fit, sir.”

A look of disappointment flashed over the older man’s face. In another instant, his face was stripped of emotion, and a hardened military man stood in his place. “So be it. You’re assigned to Apolo’s command until I decide differently. But you won’t be alone, and you will check in at least three times per day.” He turned without another word to his son.

“You and you and you,” the general pointed to three Rangers. “Grab the extra gear. You’re with Lieutenant Jerrick.”

The trio of soldiers moved to stand by Jax without question.

Sienna turned to Jax. Like his father, he betrayed no emotion. But she knew this Jerrick. The one to whom family meant everything.

“General,” Apolo called out.

Jerrick turned and put his hands on his hips in a defiant pose.

“In another act of good faith, I will not move my base. We will remain here until you wish to talk. You have our location. What you do with it will become a critical turning point in your world’s history.”

He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly before a look of grudging respect came over him. With a nod, he turned from Apolo and walked away. Ace gave him a wink before following his general. The remaining soldiers backed away, still holding weapons at them.

Sienna dropped her hands when the thought hit her. When had she started thinking of the Sephians as “us” and the Americans as “them?” Had she betrayed her country? Her race?

She turned to Jax, whose face she couldn’t read. He was busy fighting his own demons. No, Jax had nailed it. She wasn’t betraying anyone. She was right where she needed to be.

When she was sure the Rangers were far enough away, she pulled up her sleeve as she hobbled toward Apolo, who was now wavering on his feet. “Let’s get you to Med. And you better take some of our energy on the way.” She leaned into him, trying to hold him up as Legian came to support both of them at the same time.

“That could’ve gone better,” the Sephian leader muttered, his voice sounding weak.

Sienna blinked her eyes as Apolo drew from her energy. “It will next time.” And she hoped her words held true.

So many thoughts swirled in Sienna’s head while she sat in Apolo’s room. She’d never been invited to this room before. Not with his trinity. It had only ever been the trinity. Yet now both Jax and she sat in Apolo’s inner sanctum while a member of Apolo’s trinity lay in Med, and from the look of his injuries, Bente wasn’t going to be back in this room any time soon.

Legian leaned back in his chair and absently traced the
soullare
on Sienna’s forearm. Then he pulled away, his demeanor going from
tahren
to soldier in the blink of an eye. She looked up to see a haggard Apolo enter the room. Following her lover’s lead, she sat up straighter.

Apolo now sported a fresh six-inch scar on his bicep, a jagged line where a spur from the blood-charge must’ve slid across his arm rather than going straight in. Sienna had noticed Sephians scarred more easily than their human counterparts and wondered if it had something to do with their accelerated healing abilities. Regardless of how fast a body healed, the body still retained reminders. Instead of arthritis, the Sephians got scars.

Legian leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table. “What’s the word on Bente?”

Some of Apolo’s stress looked like it washed away with the question. “He’ll recover. They got to him before he lost too much blood. When I checked in on him, he’d gone through three donors already and was onto a fourth. Other than earning several new scars, we should have the old Bente back in no time.”

Nalea leaned back in her chair and looked up to the ceiling. “Praise the gods.”

Legian nodded toward Apolo’s arm. “It looks like you could use another donor. Or two.”

The man glanced down at his wound and shrugged. “It can wait. The bleeding has stopped. I’ll grab one later. We have more important business to discuss.”

Sienna’s
tahren
gave him a disapproving look but — wisely — said nothing. It was something she’d learned in her first few days on the base. If Apolo wasn’t in the mood to talk, she’d have better luck getting a mute to speak.

Apolo’s fist knuckled the table. “After today’s unfortunate incident I think it is safe to say that we are still on our own in our fight against the Draeken.”

Under-freaking-statement of the year.

To make matters worse, now that the military knew the location of the base, it would be a risk constantly hanging over all their heads. The ship was too low on power to move to another location. Not that they’d share that bit of news with the military. The base couldn’t use the kerosene-nitrogen blend fuel that powered the small ships. So this was where the base would be staying. There was nothing stopping the U.S. military from sweeping in and taking the base at any moment.

Today, she’d finally understood why Legian and the other Sephians were so damn loyal to Apolo. The guy would do anything for his people. He was a natural leader. He’d nearly sacrificed himself today proving that. If he hadn’t tried to smooth things with the Americans, if he hadn’t swallowed his pride, they may not be sitting here right now. The thought was eerie.

“However, the alliance is no longer our immediate concern,” he continued and turned to Jax. “It isn’t a lost cause. Not yet. You and I will discuss that matter further tonight.”

Jax nodded tightly.

“
Suvaste
.” Apolo punched the table with his fist. Sienna jumped and slapped her hands down on the table by accident. It looked like his action caught everyone by surprise. After all, the Sephian never, ever lost his temper. He kept it bottled inside, always boiling just below his skin, never quite getting letting it out to see the light of day. He looked at each person at the table in turn, and she wanted to shrink under the piercing gaze enhanced by his
soullare
.

After a moment, he lowered his head and ran a hand through his long hair. It felt as if the room itself let out a sigh. “The Draeken influence is a festering wound in this base. Despite our best attempts, our com-tecs have found nothing. We are no closer today than we were before the ambush. We can no longer afford to wait for the traitor — or traitors — to make a mistake.”

“You don’t think Giphers was it,” Legian said in a way that sounded like he already knew the answer.

“That kid didn’t have enough brains or balls for it,” Nalea added.

“Any news from your inside guy?” Sienna asked, not looking at anyone, choosing instead to fidget with the freshly-cleaned bandana tied around her wrist. She wasn’t positive she’d been invited to his room to participate in the discussion, but she figured if Apolo invited Sienna Wolfe to the game, she sure as hell was going to play.

Apolo frowned. “I lost contact with my scout immediately following the first base attack. Since the information he provided on the Draeken camp was faulty, I think it is safe to assume he has been compromised. We no longer have a viable source of information on the Draeken.”

“
Suvaste
,” Legian muttered.

“Fuck me,” Nalea added.

Apolo nodded. “All the more reason to act sooner versus later. Today’s events made it clear. I believe the time has come to entice the fox out of hiding.” He rubbed his nearly healed arm and sat down. “Before he was compromised, my scout believed Hillas died en route to Earth from injuries he sustained before he left Sephia.”

Nalea leaned forward. “If Hillas is dead, Roden is likely in charge.”

Legian scowled. “Unfortunately, we can’t know that for sure. We don’t know when your scout was compromised. They could have been feeding him misinformation longer than we realized.”

Apolo shook his head. “Possibly, although I doubt it. He’s too smart for that. The last communication I received from him was distorted, garbled, which I should have seen as a red flag. All we know for now is that we can no longer make assumptions about their military strategy.”

From what Sienna had heard, Hillas, the all-powerful Draeken despot, was an in-your-face brutalist. The Draeken leader was a genius planner, but he had no respect for life. He’d charge right into battle with no thought as to casualties on either side.

Roden, on the other hand, was a wild card, thought to be insane. No one could figure out how he operated. He often avoided full frontal assaults, and was known to be fond of sending his soldiers on suicide missions. He served as one of Hillas’s generals and was believed to be the only remaining high-ranking Draeken from the Noble War. Oh, and torture was his hobby.

After the attack on the base, Sienna had learned first-hand at how aggressive Roden could be. She could see why every Sephian cursed him. Her leg throbbed at the thought of him. She hated that man.

“With Hillas, we knew what to expect from the Draeken. He’d always operated with some sense of moral code. We cannot make such theories if Roden is now their leader. And so going forward, we will operate under the assumption that they may employ any strategy necessary,” Apolo added. “Although we did gain one valuable piece of information today.”

Sienna’s eyes widened. “What’s that?”

“The traitorous dog leaving its stench around this base is without a doubt on a Draeken leash. I am convinced the humans had no hand in the ambush as well as the incident today. It narrows our scope considerably. The traitor is a Sephian with ties to the Draeken. Ties that have remained hidden to us. So we will entice the traitor come to us.”

He thought the traitor could be a human?

“To draw out the dog, we need to offer something it cannot resist,” Legian said.

Then it hit her. She sat up a little straighter. “How about letting it leak that before today’s brouhaha, the general shared the location of the Draeken core ship? That kind of intel should be downright irresistible to someone sympathetic to the Draeken. If we monitor all coms going off the base, something’s got to ping pretty fast.”

“That is our kindle. Now we need a spark.” Apolo tapped a forefinger to his lip.

“We could also leak that you conveniently keep the location and attack plans in your room,” Legian added.

“Hmm. Yes. That should do it. We’ll need to be careful about how we share this information. We don’t want the traitor to become suspicious,” the Sephian leader said in agreement, and then went straight into details.

Legian tightened his grip on her hand, and she squeezed back. It could work.
Please let it work.

An hour later, the group stepped out into the hall. The trap was ready to be set. And each had a role to play. The traitor would be stopped tonight. No matter what.

It was a dull, recurring dance. Sit, stand, pace, sit again. Boredom threatened to overtake the group holed up in the com-room, twiddling thumbs. Well, everyone except Bente who was currently more than a little pissed off at Apolo for making him stay in Med overnight. His temper played into the plan perfectly, although Sienna felt sorry for the med-tecs on duty.

The guy was the most god-awful, horrible patient she’d ever seen. Even worse than her. She’d picked up some new Sephian cuss words when the med-tecs restrained him, which must have been pretty colorful since Legian wouldn’t translate for her.

The restraints wouldn’t have held Bente if he’d really wanted out, so it was a good thing he obeyed his leader and stayed in Med for one night to play his part. Apolo had apprised Bente of the plan, which only fueled Bente’s anger at being bedridden during an important night.

On the down side, not having cute, snarly Bente in the room threw off the whole group’s cadence. Even with the drone of audio filtering in over the monitors strewn across the base, the com-room was quieter without the big guy’s cynicism, making the minutes drag on and on. Sienna’s eyes glazed over while she stared at a dozen monitors on the wall showing different angles of the hallway and Apolo’s rooms.

If the information they leaked made it to the right ears, Bente was miserably stuck in Med (fact) while Apolo, Legian, and Nalea were to be off base tonight negotiating a new source for supplies (not fact).

The plan was beautiful in its simplicity. First, Legian and Nalea grabbed a bite to eat at the Commons and told a few key people (i.e. the gossips) they were heading out tonight with Apolo. That kind thing was common around the base, so the news was sure not to raise any red flags. Part one accomplished.

Part two was where Sienna came into play. Jax and she hit the training room during its busiest time to make sure they had plenty of company. After a half-hearted attempt at a work-out, they chatted about how Jax got the okay to move into the officers’ hall, converting the storage room next to Bente’s into living space. They went into how it was great to hear some of the scoop first hand, such as the news of a bona fide Draeken base being found, and how Apolo was sitting on the news to play it safe. Piece o’ cake.

And to add the cherry on top, they also happened to spill that they were going out on a beer run after Jax moved his gear to his new room. It wouldn’t take a scientist to figure out the officers’ hall would be left empty of officers tonight, leaving only the com-room with staff. And the com-tecs were notorious for staying holed up in the room until their shifts were up.

The Sephians already had a dismal view of human intelligence, so for Sienna and Jax to gossip fit right into their preconceived stereotypes. Ironically, it was the Sephian rumor mill that they were counting on. With three hundred Sephians cooped up in an underground bunker, any kind of hearsay moved faster than Fred Flintstone’s feet in a Stone Age car. The news had likely zigzagged the entire base before they’d even left the training room. Aside from the continuously staffed com-room, this left the small officers’ hallway vacant and ripe for the disreputable to pluck.
Yabba dabba do.