Quantum (29 page)

Once the deck had been organized, Mae trailed Zander as he and Rian met Forster back at the bottom of the
Ebony Winter
’s ramp.

“We don’t have enough rounds to clear everyone on the ship yet.” Rian put voice to Mae’s earlier thoughts, and she tried not to let the worry over that creep back in. “Where can we secure the ones we’re unsure of until we’ve taken care of fake-Zander?”

Zander glanced around the deck, considering. “On level two, we keep a secure, empty storage facility for emergency situations or unexpected cargo. It’s big enough to fit twice the number of crew on the
Swift Brion
.”

Rian glanced at her. “Mae, you, Lucie, and Lianna take this lot there. Jensen and the rest of Qae’s crew members will periodically escort groups down to hold as Zander and I clear the levels until we reach the bridge.”

“No offense, Rian, but I signed on to be Zander’s admiral’s assistant, and I’ve been protecting him this long. So you’re mistaken if you think I’m going to walk away now.”

Rian cut a quick look between the two of them. “This is no time to let feelings get in the way—”

“I’m not.” She’d tried not to snap the words, but by the look on Rian’s face, she hadn’t been very successful. “I’m doing my job, that’s all.”

Rian turned to Zander. “Graydon, you want to take care of this?”

Zander’s expression was hard and indifferent as he looked at her, and a chill chased under her skin. Did he really have so little regard for her? The knowledge that she’d hurt him was a constant, bone-deep ache within her, but a small spark of her hope had held out that he might not hate her, even if they couldn’t be together.

“Lieutenant Marshal Petros, I’m relieving you of your duty as my admiral’s assistant. But I am ordering you to do as Rian suggests and take these people to secure storage on level two.”

Humiliated anger washed through her. So they were going all boys club on her now? She wasn’t trying to be egotistical, but Zander wouldn’t have made it off Tocarra alive, let alone met up with Rian if it hadn’t been for her. And now they wanted to shuffle her off because they thought she was too emotionally involved?
Whatever.
It was their loss if they wanted to square her away somewhere else while the action went down.

She returned Zander’s glare as she tucked her Reidar stunner away. “Fine. You don’t need to pull rank on me.”

Something flashed in Zander’s gaze before he looked away. Part of her wanted to pull him back and demand to know what the hell was up, but she wasn’t going to confirm Rian’s accusation of letting her emotions get in the way.

“Zander and I are going to use the team of the soldiers we’ve cleared to get up to the bridge.” Rian motioned Lucie and Lianna to join them. “Once you’ve secured the storage area, clear as many of the crew as you can until you run out of charges. Understood?”

He sent her a hard-ass stare, but she’d known him too long to let something like that intimidate her.

“Yes,
sir
,” she replied with almost no sarcasm whatsoever.

Rian’s scowl intensified, and she swallowed over the urge to add a poetic
screw you
.

Mae turned to Lucie and Lianna. As she went to follow them to the crowd at the far end of the hangar, Zander grabbed her arm, an intense light burning in his gaze.

“I’m sorry. I know we’ve faced every other fight together, and you can take care of yourself. But I can’t have you up there with me, putting yourself between me and danger. This one is personal, and I can’t go into it distracted. Maybe that’s a cop-out, but you understand, right?”

The hard anger in her chest loosened a little. Even with an explanation, she still didn’t like it, but he meant more to her than her own well-being, so she’d bow out of this battle like he wanted.

Her throat tightened convulsively, but she swallowed down the sensation. “Just don’t get yourself killed.”

“Believe me, that’s not part of the plan.” He leaned closer, as if maybe he wanted to kiss her, but at the last second he pulled back, leaving her heart aching. “Just watch your back, okay?”

She nodded. He sent her one last lingering look, then strode over to join Rian and Forster. They headed for the hatchway leading into the heart of the ship, followed by the armed forces contingent who’d been cleared by the Reidar stunners.

Mae’s heart fluttered. Watching him walk away, knowing what he’d be facing, was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life. Now all she could do was pray that he came back to her again, that she got the chance to make things right between them, to let him know how much he meant to her. Though she didn’t want to face it, deep down she knew that if he died before she could make things right, it would be a destructive kind of anguish she’d never recover from.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Zander led his men deeper into the ship, flanked by Rian and Forster. So far, they hadn’t come across any resistance. They’d told people that ship-wide communications were down and they had an emergency situation that required everyone to gather in the level-two echo storage bay.

The bridge of the
Swift Brion
was smack-bang in the middle of the ship, supposedly to make it harder for invading parties to reach it. There were defendable blast doors at certain intervals, and Zander had no doubt his fake self would have already set up a line of defense at one or all of those points, since Tannin’s hack would have made it impossible to close them.

However, as they got farther along, a number of soldiers cleared by the Reidar stunner joined them, so by sheer numbers alone, they would hopefully end up with the advantage.

They passed through the first two blast points with no sign of trouble, but at the third, they came across a blockade made of stacks of crates, desks, and other movable furniture.

Zander kept his Reidar stunner in his hand but pointed down as he stepped forward. Most of the armed men on the opposite side of the barrier already seemed confused.

“Stand down and let us pass.” He took several slow steps toward them.

“Captain Admiral, sir, you just gave us orders a few minutes ago to defend this position with extreme prejudice,” one of the soldiers said across the sights of his rifle.

Zander held a hand out. “I know this is hard to grasp right now, but that wasn’t me.”

“Then who is up on the bridge?” another soldier put in.

“The person in control of this ship in an impostor,” Torres said. “So I suggest you all move out of the captain admiral’s way and join us to take this ship back.”

A few of the soldiers had a quiet, murmured conversation, then lowered their weapons and came out from behind the barrier.

The sound of rifle fire exploded in the enclosed passageway, sending Zander diving for the protection of an upturned desk in front of him. A couple of the soldiers who’d moved to join their ranks went facedown in the middle of the corridor, shot in the back by someone behind them.

Shouts echoed as men took cover and started firing on one another.

Zander sliced a grim look at Rian, who’d landed next to him.
Goddamn it.
This was exactly what he didn’t want—his own people blindly shooting at one another because they were following orders from two different Zander Graydons.

He ducked around the side of the desk to see who had opened fire on them. A shot went off from Rian, and one of the men farther down the passageway stumbled, his face warping into something not quite human.

More confusion erupted, but Zander brought his Reidar stunner up, outing two more of the bastards. The three aliens took a concentrated volley of shots from multiple directions before going down.

After they’d hit the deck, silence fell, leaving Zander’s ears ringing. He grabbed a short breath then cautiously pushed to his feet.

Rian came up next to him, checking the power pack on his stunner. “I’ve got six shots left, what about you?”

Zander checked his own weapon. “Five. And I’m going to take a wild guess and say we’ll find the next two blast points similarly guarded.”

“Make sure you save a couple of rounds for your psycho twin.” Rian moved off to check how many rounds Forster and the rest of their men had. Torres was checking the few fallen men, calling for someone to get the medics.

“We’ve got to keep moving, Lieutenant.” Zander avoided looking at the downed soldier, not wanting to know who it was, as he gripped the younger man’s shoulder.

Torres nodded, grim resignation on his face. “This is a goddamn mess, sir.”

“I won’t argue with you there.”

As Torres rallied AF company, Zander kicked some debris out of the way and moved farther down the corridor to where Rian had gone to check whether the aliens were dead. Likely, all of that nucleon rifle fire had turned their insides to mincemeat, but when it came to the frecking resilient hell spawn, they couldn’t be too careful.

“They’re space fertilizer.” Rian pushed to his feet. “Let’s hope there aren’t too many more of the scum bastards.” Zander nodded and glanced back to ensure the rest of the men were ready to move. He put his shoulder to Rian’s and kept his weapon up as they continued deeper into the ship.

As expected, they met with the same resistance at the next blast point, but this time the bunkered soldiers opened fire as soon as they saw him coming.

Zander shut his mind down, going into automatic battle mode. They fought their way through the final blast points with grim determination, taking casualties and causing them. He couldn’t stop to think about how many of his own men—some of whom he’d served with for years—were going down, or the fight would be over before they reached their target.

Just outside the bridge, Zander paused and crouched by the intersection of two corridors to take a beat. He wiped his forearm over the sweat creeping down the side of his face.

Rian knelt on one knee next to him, a streak of blood dripping down the side of his face. He didn’t have his Reidar stunner anymore, only his nucleon gun. “How many shots do you have left?”

“Two.”

“Good,” Rian puffed. “The rest of us are out.”

Hell.

Not what he wanted to hear. If fake-Zander wasn’t the only Reidar on the bridge, they’d have no way of telling. Truthfully, the number of the damn aliens they’d uncovered so far had freaked his shite out. Just how long had he been working and socializing with all those psychotic parasites? He shook his head, clearing the chilling thought—he couldn’t let himself dwell on the creep factor when they still had the big mama to take care of. The plan was to apprehend his fake self, not kill him. Rian wanted some powwow time with the alien, intending to get answers on the state of the Reidar invasion.

“Well, let’s get this done,” he muttered, tightening his grip on the last powered-up Reidar stunner they had.

Standing, he strode toward the bridge, Rian, Forster, and the rest of the men falling in behind. The double sliding doors to the bridge weren’t secured, and Zander almost expected to get taken out as they whooshed open in front of him.

He led with his weapon, walking into absolute silence. In the middle of the bridge, on the low command platform, his Reidar self stood, staring at him over the short barrel of a nucleon gun.

Jezus.
He’d known this moment was coming, but facing off with himself…
Holy christ
, weird didn’t even begin to cover it.

No one said a thing. But the tension in the room thickened by the moment.

“I don’t know who you are, or how you look like me, but surrendering now is the only smart thing you can do at this point,” the Reidar said.

A cold shiver rippled through him, because the thing sounded and talked exactly like him. But that was the point, wasn’t it? A perfect replacement so no one would notice until it was too late.

“That’s funny, coming from you,” Rian said from just behind his left shoulder. “How about you surrender, and we might not turn your insides to slop like we did with your buddies back there.”

A figured moved in from the right, shifting to stand in Zander’s line of fire. Colonel Captain McCarty, who was in charge of flying the
Swift Brion
, stared at him with obvious confusion and anger. Damn it, he’d been friends with McCarty for too many years to count.

“I don’t know what the hell this is, but whoever you are, you need to put that weapon down.” McCarty had his hand on the grip of his gun but hadn’t drawn it from his holster.

“Mack, don’t make me shoot you.” Zander steadied his Reidar stunner on the man.

“I’ve got no qualms about it.” Rian’s words caused McCarty to draw his sidearm.

Before they could open fire on each other, Zander used his second-to-last stunner shot, praying under his breath as the pulse hit the colonel captain.

McCarty shook the zap off, not reacting in any other way. Zander took a moment to blow out a hard breath of relief.

“He’s not Reidar, Rian.”

“I can see that, but he’s still in our way.” Rian squeezed the trigger, and Zander’s heart skipped a rushed beat until he realized McCarty had been shot with a pulse pistol to knock him out.

There were a few shocked murmurs as McCarty collapsed, but no one made a move. Of course, having the AF company at his back with their weapons ready probably convinced most of them that taking a stand against him wasn’t the smartest move if they wanted to leave the bridge alive.

Before anyone could make another move, Zander lined up the Reidar and pulled the trigger.

And absolutely nothing happened.

He cursed as the light on the bottom of the Reidar stunner indicating charge flickered and died.

“Rian, I’m out.” With a quick movement, Zander dropped the stunner and yanked out his nucleon gun.

He went forward with measured steps, into the middle of the room and up onto the edge of the command platform, the Reidar watching him warily.

“You’re surrounded and outnumbered—”

“So I should just surrender?” the Reidar sneered. “Sorry, but obviously this universe only needs one Zander Graydon, which not only makes you a pain in my ass, but also a liability to my command.”

“Enough with the chitchat,” Rian interjected. “If he won’t go quietly, then shut him the hell up already.”

Yeah, he’d had about enough of listening to that crap himself. The bastard wouldn’t be laughing once he was bleeding on the deck and everyone saw his true face. Zander leveled his nucleon gun and squeezed off a single shot. Less than ten steps separated them; it should have been like shooting fish in a barrel. Except at the last second, the Reidar twisted out of the way with superhuman speed, and the pulse of energy streaked past him.

Rian swore from behind him as the Reidar straightened, brought up his own nucleon gun, and let off a shot. The blast clipped Zander’s gun hand, and he lost his weapon, but the slight burn didn’t slow him down. He charged forward, going in low and taking the Reidar down with a tackle to the midsection. A second shot from the Reidar went wild, blasting into one of the upper bulkheads.

Zander pinned his weight on top of the bastard, catching the alien’s wrist and smashing its arm down until it dropped the nucleon gun. With a feral snarl, the thing flipped them, the motion propelling them off the far edge of the platform, out of sight from most of the bridge. Zander landed flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him as the Reidar came down on top and levered a forearm against his throat.

Struggling for air, Zander got one hand under the thing’s wrist, trying to lessen the pressure. With his other hand, he groped for the metium knife Rian had given him earlier. Slipping it free, he brought it up and around to stab into the Reidar’s shoulder. It flinched, and Zander took the opportunity to shove upward, partly dislodging the creature.

He sucked in a ragged breath, darkness dotting the edges of his vision, as he scrabbled to his feet. The Reidar lunged for him, but he vaulted back onto the platform with a roll, leaving him with a height advantage. He kicked out at the thing’s head, but it grabbed his ankle and wrenched, twisting him off balance. While he was trying to recover from that, the Reidar leaped onto the platform and advanced on him.

In a blind swing, he struck out with the knife again, but the Reidar caught his hand before the knife could make contact.

“Rian,” the Reidar panted. “Shoot the bastard while I’ve got him down.”

Sheer panic swamped Zander, and he yanked at the knife as he glanced over at Rian, who’d moved closer to them, his nucleon gun trained on where they were straining against each other.

“Wait,” he rasped, his throat raw from the son of a bitch trying to choke him. “It’s a trick, Rian, he’s trying to confuse you.”

Rian glanced between the two of them, his expression grim, and cold shock blasted through Zander as he realized Rian had no idea which of them to trust.

It was his last thought as his best friend pulled the trigger.