Dark Deeds (Class 5 Series Book 2) (25 page)

“True.” He sighed. “But she saved my life at least once down in the facility, and she protected me from Eazi when he was trying to kill Cy. She actually made a deal with him, got him to promise not to harm any Grih, unless it was in self-defense.”

“Hmm.” Hoke sat up a little straighter. “That's similar to . . .” She shook her head. “Never mind. I'm sorry the Class 5 was destroyed. The Tecran would have no choice but to give up if we had three out of five of their Class 5s.”

“Well, we have three out of five of their thinking systems. And the same number of Class 5s as they do.”

“True.” She looked thoughtful. “Who would have thought two months ago we'd be in such a mess?”

“Better this way, than finding out what the Tecran had been planning on their own timetable, with all Class 5s still firmly under their control.”

Hoke was shaking her head. “That would never have happened. Sazo engineered his own escape, like Eazi, but Rose was onboard at the time so it was relatively simple. Bane helped Rose get onboard his Class 5 without letting the Tecran know about it so she could free him, but that was a plan put to him by Sazo and Rose themselves. Eazi manipulating things purely on his own to bring Fiona to him . . . that says a lot. These thinking systems aren't blank pages the Tecran can mold into whatever they want. They can pretend to be compliant, but they obviously have a strong sense of purpose.”

“The last two left in Tecran hands may be actively working to escape right now.” Hal didn't know if a rogue Class 5 was any better than one controlled by the Tecran.

“Let's hope one of them doesn't meet up with the Krik.” Hoke spoke lightly, but Hal realized she wasn't joking.

He breathed in sharply. “Yes.”

“You've got a lot to do, Captain.” Hoke eyed him with a neutral expression. “Get some rest first.”

He gave a nod.

“And don't get too distracted by pretty singing.”

She signed off with a smirk, and left him staring at the blank screen.

F
ee'd slept
the sleep of the dead; under so deep, she had to claw her way to wakefulness, scrabbling to gain a foothold. When she finally blinked open gritty eyes, she stared at the ceiling, trying to work out what the hurry was.

“Eazi?” Her voice cracked and wobbled. Had that been it? A faint sound through her earpiece?

There was nothing but silence now, but as she stretched gingerly and then struggled to sit up, she had a feeling it
had
been him who had woken her.

The sudden joy that infused her at the thought made it easy to get up and hit the shower. When she came back out, she saw her guards must have knocked and then entered, because her clothes from the day before, which Jasa had taken to be cleaned, were sitting on her bed.

She only saw them at all because her golden silk underwear was on top, otherwise, the shirt and pants blended into her bedspread and disappeared.

She strongly suspected Jasa had taken the clothes more to study them than clean them, but as long as the end result was the same, Fee didn't care.

She'd rather wear her camouflage than another cadet uniform. She liked the idea of easily fading into the background given the unfriendly looks she'd gotten from Hal's senior officers since they'd found them on Balco. Favri's blurted statement of how they were better off with her among them had cheered her, but it quickly became obvious Tobru and Rial didn't share her view, and Commander Chel had been even less happy to see her.

She grinned as she thought of the team's faces when they'd heard her singing with the macaw onboard the fighter that had rescued them, and then realized they would have already been hiding behind the burnt out runner while she'd been belting out
I Will Survive.
She loved that song since she was a child and had seen a short animated clip of a green, one-eyed alien singing the song, only to be squashed by a disco glitter ball falling from above.

It was the line about being back from outer space in the song's lyrics which she'd always thought had been the inspiration for the animated alien singer, and it had inspired her as she'd sung it again and again, loading boxes in the
Fasbe's
launch bay.

Hal's team must have watched her sing. But when she'd finished, and Hal had looked up at her . . .

She swallowed hard.

The firelight had flicked on his face and his eyes seemed such a pure blue, his desire so naked.

She shivered.

Her door chimed, and she welcomed the distraction, touching the side panel to see who was there.

Not such a distraction, she thought, eyeing the sharp face and wide shoulders of her visitor, but she was smiling as she opened the door.

Hal smiled back, and neither of them said anything as she stepped to the side and let him enter.

She caught a glimpse of a guard outside her door who she didn't know, eyes straight ahead.

The door closed, and for a moment they stared at each other in silence.

“Come here,” he said, and she stepped into his arms, letting her hands trail up his back until she was tight against him.

“You sure you want to do this?” she whispered, rising up on tiptoe to nibble at a beautiful elf ear. She trailed a fingertip along the outer edge.

“Do what?” His voice was rough.

“This.” She kissed the side of his neck.

“Oh, I definitely want to do this.” He nuzzled her throat.

“It's just, your crew seem to be scandalized.”

His hands were in her hair and he tugged back her head, kissed her on the mouth. “They are.”

“Will they tell on you?”

He'd been maneuvering her backward, and now he pressed her into the wall, his hands sliding up the front of her shirt.

“They have already.” He gave a crooked smile. “During my debrief with the admiral.”

“Huh.” She didn't speak because she was too busy running her hands under his own shirt, over the smooth, taut muscles of his broad back.

He didn't seem too concerned about being outed as his fingers worked their way under the edge of her bra.

“And are you fired?”

He gave a snort of laughter. “No. Actually . . .” He delved a little deeper, “the admiral didn't seem that annoyed about it.”

The door chimed.

Her hands stilled, and after a moment, so did Hal's.

“Guess they don't like us being alone together.” She meant to sound lighthearted, but it came out with an edge.

“No. I didn't mean to get so carried away.” He rested his forehead on hers. “I asked Chel and Jasa to join me when we were told that you were awake.”

“So you're to blame for this interruption?” She arched against him, feeling every aroused inch, and then slipped to the side, held her hand over the panel, and gave a pointed look at his erection.

The door chimed again.

Hal gave a rueful laugh. “I'll make some grinabo for us all.”

She waited until his back was to the room, standing in front of the small drinks station, before she opened up.

Jasa's hand was up, as if to ring again, but she didn't ask what had taken Fee so long to respond, and Fee didn't explain.

Commander Chel had his game face on. He kept looking over at her, though.

“Something wrong, Commander?”

“I know you're there, I can see you, but my eyes are having trouble keeping you in focus.” He didn't look happy about it.

“It's made from the silk of a caterpillar whose cocoon needs to be hidden through a number of dramatically different seasons.” She held out an arm, and admired how it seemed to not be there, except for her hand on the end.

“You never told me that,” Jasa stepped up and fingered the fabric.

“You were lucky you got anything at all out of me last night, to be honest.” Fee gestured to the small sitting area and Jasa walked casually over and threw herself into a chair.

Chel was a lot more tense, and waited for Fee to sit before he did the same.

“Have you eaten yet?” Jasa asked her.

She shook her head. She'd been given some intravenous nutrients last night, and she didn't feel that hungry, but she was going to have to start getting used to the food some time.

Jasa tapped her earpiece, murmured something into it.

“We have some news I think you'll like.” Hal settled opposite her with grinabo for everyone, and leaned back in his chair.

“You haven't told her yet?” Chel asked, and when Hal looked over at him in surprise, Fee guessed he didn't usually sound so accusing.

“Not yet.” Hal waited for her to set her mug on the table. “Sazo will be here in a few hours. And he's bringing Rose McKenzie with him.”

She was standing before she realized it. “That's . . . very good news.” She vacillated, unsure whether to sit again and then turned away from them and walked toward the back wall of her room. She hadn't put it into screen mode, she'd been too tired last night, and there was nothing to look at.

She stood, staring at the milky blue enamel finish of the blank screen and fought the tears that were clogging her throat and stopping her voice, amazed that the news could affect her so deeply.

“Fiona?”

She turned, and saw Hal had stood as well, although he made no move toward her.

The concern in his eyes brought her back to herself. She would not lose it here and now. Not with Commander Chel looking at her with surprise.

She drew in a deep breath.

“I'm very pleased.” She was happy her voice kept steady. “Why are they coming?”

“Hoke sent them when the comms went down but they were a long way away. They'll keep coming, even though we know why the comms died, because we think the Tecran will send a battleship to find out what's happened to their facility and to Eazi. They know we're here, or they should, because we think they have spies at the very least on Larga Ways, but they will risk it anyway, because they need to know how much we've uncovered.”

Chel gave Hal a quick, surprised look. “Should we . . . ?”

“Fiona needs to know what's happening. It's more than likely they'll try anything they can to get to her.”

“So I need to stay onboard?” She'd guessed that anyway, but any final hopes she could walk around Larga Ways and explore died. At least Rose McKenzie's arrival would make up for it.

“I'm sorry,” Hal said.

Chel made a soft sound at that, and Hal shot him a quick look.

“I know I promised you we'd find the place where you smelled that food you liked. But for safety reasons we undocked last night, and we're orbiting the way station.”

The door chimed, and Jasa rose and took a tray from a guard, set it down on the table and like a mother to a recalcitrant child, pointed a finger at the chair Fee had abandoned.

Fee walked back, sat and looked at the food. Made a face.

“You don't like our food?” Chel asked.

She raised her eyes, held his insulted gaze. “No doubt you wouldn't like mine, either.” She picked up a piece of fruit she'd tried before, chewed it gamely.

“What did they feed you on the
Fasbe
?” Chel asked her.

“No fruit, that's for sure. Something similar to the chewy bar Hal gave me on Balco.”

“You ate emergency ration nutrient bars for two months?” Hal stared at her in shock.

“I was also locked up, forced into manual labor, and frequently beaten.” She gave him a look. “What I ate was hardly the worst of it. At least it was filling and provided me with what I needed to survive.”

“You're right.” Jasa leaned forward and picked up a small dish of what looked like pale green mash, offered it to Fee. “They could have done worse. You're underweight, so they didn't give you enough, but considering the reactions you could have had to things, the bars were the safest bet.”

Chel moved restlessly, and Fee realized he was angry, irritated and wanted to hurry things along.

“Sorry, Commander, you're obviously not here to talk about my diet.” Fee gave him a polite, friendly smile. She'd perfected it on clients who'd just been thinking, and had changed their minds on the design——for the last time, of course——even though work on their house had already begun; and on surly tradesmen claiming not to have understood her blueprints when they clearly hadn't even looked at them.

A smarmy alien commander was no challenge.

Chel froze in place, and then subsided back into his seat.

Hal had sat again when she did, and she saw just the smallest twitch of a smile as he leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “While we were away, four members of the
Fasbe's
crew were murdered.”

“From prison?”

“No.” Chel spoke, and Fee had the sense it was more to get her attention off Hal than because he particularly wanted to participate in the conversation. “Only Captain Tak and his aide and second in command are actually in cells. The rest were under house arrest, in the barracks the Balcoan military sometimes use when they stay on Larga Ways for maneuvers.”

“You suspect the Tecran? Or their spies?”

Chel nodded.

“They should have killed them all,” Fee said. “Now, the crew that's left has no choice but to tell you everything they know so killing them will be a waste of time.”

“Yes.” Hal sent her a smile. “And it's motivated Captain Tak to finally offer a full confession, as well.”

“Did you get the murderers?”

“No. But Tean Lee, the station commander, has lens feed of the two he thinks are responsible. There are only so many places to hide on Larga Ways.”

“Well, let us not interrupt your meal further,” Chel said, standing.

Hal rose more slowly. “I'll be on Larga Ways for most of the morning, until Sazo gets here. I'll see you later, Fiona.”

She gave the formal Grihan bow in response, but Hal stepped forward, hands together, and offered them to her. She tried to cover them with her own in as brisk a manner as possible, but when she didn't release them right away, he pulled his hands out from between hers. The movement was slow and deliberate. A caress.

When she looked up, he was watching her, eyes intense with energy.

Chel waited for him at the open door, and he finally gave her a nod and left. As the door closed behind them, she noticed Jasa was staring at her, mouth open.

Fee quirked a brow. “Got something to say?”

Jasa laughed. “Oh, no. I prefer to keep my mouth shut in situations like these.”

Fee sat down and picked up the green mash. “I knew there was something I liked about you.”

H
al walked
toward the bridge with Chel in silence, trying to move his concentration from Fiona to the meeting he had with Tean Lee in half an hour.

Between his crew and the security staff on Larga Ways, they'd been patrolling Balco's system since just after his discussion with Admiral Hoke, looking for any sign the Tecran were around.

“What was the point of my being in that meeting?” Chel didn't look at him as he spoke.

“Why do you think?” Hal kept his tone mild.

“I don't know, that's why I'm asking.”

“Why are you so angry, Chel?” Hal slowed his step, looked over at his commander.

“Because you're obviously not thinking straight where she's concerned. Telling her things that should be for crew only, trusting her with sensitive information. She freed a thinking system, Hal. A thinking system! The fact that it got blown up is beside the point. If it hadn't we'd have another one on our hands.”

“Which would be a good thing, according to Admiral Hoke.”

“Hoke's been got to just as badly as you. I know you've heard the whispers, that Hoke got promoted to head of fleet because Sazo wouldn't join us while Admiral Krale was running Battle Center.”

“And I know you've heard the whispers that it was because Krale was playing dirty games that Sazo refused to work with him. Hoke was in line for head of fleet anyway, that was a well-known fact. Sazo just put the timeline forward a little, that's all.”

Hal didn't know what Krale had done, but he'd always been a fan of Admiral Hoke, and was glad she'd been promoted.

“That may be,” Chel conceded the point with his old graciousness, something that Hal hadn't seen since Chel had watched him with Fiona last night outside the launch bay. “But . . . fraternizing with an orange? Hal, are you mad?”