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Authors: Ann Aguirre

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BOOK: Wanderlust
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Keri’s home is lovely as ever, with all the elegance that surprised me the first time I visited. The place possesses the old-world charm of handcrafted moldings, shimmering marble tiles, and carpets so thick I’m afraid to walk on them. They’ve redone the foyer since I was here last, though: red and black now, a little more foreboding than the chilly silver and white elegance her grandmother had favored.

The tiles form a pattern I can’t identify, though I’ve seen it somewhere before. I stare down, absently rubbing my hands up and down my biceps. Up the stairs, she offers capacious guest suites, and hallways lead in either direction. An enormous silver-gilt mirror with acid-etched leaves dominates the far wall, offering distorted hints of the people standing in the foyer. I can’t help but shiver, as if we’ve been granted a glimpse into the afterlife, nothing but vague shapes and shadows.

“Looks beautiful,” March says. “It’s completely you, Keri.”

“Thank you.” Her cheeks pink with delicate color as she turns toward him.

Just like that, she forgets me. I’d also forgotten the huge, unrequited crush she had on March the last time we stopped here. The little darling—she’s all of nineteen, fights like a chi master, and had started to learn advanced feats before her grandmother passed away. On top of all that, at her age, she acts as joint chieftain to her clan. Keri has smooth skin, a sylph’s shape, a spill of night-dark hair, and eyes that gleam like pale jade. And by March’s smiles, he’s noticing for the first time how lovely his mentor’s granddaughter has grown to be.

I fucking hate the bitch.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 26

“Where’s Lex?” That’s one question sure to snap Keri
out of the March-induced daze she currently enjoys. Lex is the big lug she’s supposed to marry as part of the clan merger. To say she hates him would be an understatement.

She spears me with an icy stare and bares her teeth in what would be considered a hostile act on some worlds. “War council. You came at a bad time, Jax.”

What else is new?

“What’s going on?” March asks.

I recognize his solicitous tone and barely manage to keep from rolling my eyes. He thinks Keri is delicate and needs his protection. I’m sure he feels some obligation as well, given that Keri’s grandmother took him in when his gift had ravaged him and taught him to be human again. And Keri is all that his mentor left behind. I guess he doesn’t know that Keri whipped my ass without breaking a sweat.

Beside me, Jael sizes up Keri’s men, as if he suspects any situation I’m involved in could turn ugly on a moment’s notice. I didn’t realize he knew me that well.

“It’s bad. I’ll tell you about it on the way. I’m sure Lex will want to see you.” With a definite proprietary air, she takes hold of his arm. “Saul,” she adds over her shoulder to Doc. “Can you get everyone else settled for me? Thanks.”

Her honor guard, or whatever the hell they are, spins as a unit and follows her down the left hallway. None of them said a single word from the time we met her outside the ship, until now.
Fucking creepy.

“They move like military,” Jael murmurs. “Well trained, too. I wonder what’s happening on this backwater world.”

I shrug. “Hard to say. They’re always fighting over something here. I think it cuts down on boredom.”

Doc favors me with a piercing look. “Don’t be flip, Jax. When two clans join, it’s time to strike. It’s well-known here, both clans are weak, or they wouldn’t need a merger. Waiting until things are stable doesn’t make good tactical sense.”

“What’s the point, though?” Jael asks. “From what I saw, the whole planet is pretty bare. What the hell is there worth fighting over?”

“Gunnar-Dahlgren controls the magnesium mines on planet,” Doc answers briefly. “I probably don’t need to outline all the goods that encompasses.”

In my case, he does. But Jael nods, ticking them off his fingertips. “Flash grenades, imaging technology, pyrotechnics for festivals, certain metal alloys, which translates to machinery that needs to be strong and lightweight—”

“It’s used in some medicines as well,” Doc says with a nod. “And if we can’t defend the mines, they’ll wipe us out.”

Us?
I didn’t realize Doc was from Lachion. Based on his friendship with Ordo Carvati on Gehenna, I would’ve guessed he came from the Outskirts somewhere.

I sigh. “I didn’t understand what I’d done the last time I was here.”

Not really, anyway. I didn’t have anything like the big picture, even when we left. Keri has been fighting her own uphill battle ever since we left. And by the look of things, it’s not getting any easier.

“When do you ever know what you’re doing, Jax?” Dina grins at me.

Ignoring that, Doc tries to herd us toward the stairs. “You can pick out the rooms you like best. Perhaps you’d like the one you occupied last time, Jax?”

Yeah, I like the Blue Room, very serene, and it has handmade rugs so soft I sink into them. “Sure, that sounds fine.”

At this point, I notice that Vel has disappeared. I wonder if he has camo that I don’t know about because he has a habit of doing that: there one minute and gone the next. He can take care of himself, though.

“I don’t care. Assign me whatever.” Dina sighs. “If I can find parts and mod kits, I’m heading back to the ship. I have work to do.”

Jael surprises me—and evidently Dina as well, judging by her expression—by asking, “Need help?”

She narrows her eyes on him for a long moment before shrugging. “The ship needs a lot of upgrades. So if you know how to handle your tools, I won’t say no to an extra hand.”

The merc risks his life by draping an arm about her shoulders. “Darling, I’m
expert
with my hands.”

She shocks me when she doesn’t immediately drive her elbow into his stomach. I can’t believe he still flirts with her, even knowing he has no shot. Maybe he suffers from a chronic disorder. I expected he’d stick to me like glue after the lecture he just gave me, but I’m glad to get rid of him. As they go back out into the cold, I hear her reply, “Your own opinion doesn’t count, dumb-ass.”

That just leaves Doc and me. To avoid the questions in his very kind eyes, I head up the stairs. I should have known that wouldn’t matter.

“What’s wrong, Jax?”

I pause on the fourth step, but don’t turn. “I was hoping
you
could tell me. That’s part of why we’re here. Tarn cooked up this other nonsense.”

“I deduced as much,” he tells me.

Without looking at him, I confide the droid’s diagnosis. I expect him to laugh or tell me it’s ridiculous. Instead I receive silence that lasts until I wheel and gaze down at him. He looks troubled.

“I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I found a number of anomalies in your test results that puzzled me. If my hypothesis holds true, then this would explain everything. Let’s get you to the lab then.” Doc tilts his head toward the right corridor, opposite from the way March went with Keri.

Hypothesis?
This is my
life
, not a science project. I like Doc, but sometimes I think he doesn’t realize that I’m more than an “interesting specimen.” He’s the only one I trust to help me, though, so I have to accept his bedside manner.

I come down again and fall into step with him. As I recall, the house is laid out in wings. We move off toward his research facility, but before we’ve gone ten paces, the lights flicker, as if somewhere, someone has drawn an absurd amount of power.

Doc breaks into a run. “Hurry, Jax. We don’t have much time.”

“Before what?”

He doesn’t pause to answer. I trot behind him nonetheless because Doc isn’t one to manufacture crises. We’ve just reached the door to his lab, which is oddly—and ominously—made of reinforced metal, when I hear screaming.

“Doc?”

“Get inside. Now.”

I do, and he seals the door. “You want to tell me what’s going on here?”

“Teras,” he says briefly.

Just the word alone sends a cold shock through me: hideous subterranean creatures you can’t see coming. Just hear the rush of their wings through endless night. And once the dying starts . . .

With some effort, I shake myself out of it. I rub my hands together, trying to warm them. We survived them once, and we’re safe inside this time. It should be fine.

“What about them?”

“I haven’t deduced how, but Clan McCullough has figured out a way to train . . .” He pauses, listening to the distant sounds of combat, cries of rage and pain. “Well, if not train, then
use
the Teras. They seem to strike on command now. It’s not safe to leave the compound. They hit us at all hours, no rhyme or reason to it.”

“Doesn’t the shock field help?” I remember the way they fried the monsters. The smell the next morning nearly did me in.

“We can’t keep it up all the time,” he says tiredly. “Not enough juice. We run on solar panels and wind turbines, mostly the latter during the winter. Gunnar-Dahlgren is officially at war, Jax. Clan McCullough wants everything we have, and with the Teras on their side, they think they’ve figured out a way to get it.” He sighs. “I’m not sure they’re wrong.”

No wonder Keri said I came at a bad time.

“I guess jump research isn’t at your top priority at the moment.”

He manages a wan smile. “No, they’ve got me trying to sort out why the Teras are attacking like this instead of their usual feeding patterns. We’re weakening by the day, and I don’t think the McCulloughs have lost a single man.”

How do you fight when you can’t see your enemies? It would take bioengineered poisons or type-three battle droids to clean this planet out. I have no idea how the loss of the Teras would impact the planetary ecosystems either.

“Do you have the resources to build battle droids with heat imaging?” Lame, I know. I remember the way the Teras dismantled the Rover. Could they find their way into the main house as easily? Are there weak spots?

Doc shakes his head. “That’s not the way things were done here. The McCullough has changed everything. He doesn’t risk his own men or his own life for a hostile takeover. Instead he’s killing us by centimeters.”

Again, I find myself cowering while others take the risks on my behalf. That stings like nothing ever has. No. I won’t do this. Not again.

March is out there. Jael. Dina. March. I have to help them.

I stride over to the door, tap on the panel. “If it’s that bad, I should go see what I can do.”

“You can’t get out,” Doc tells me. “The doors are sealed until the attack ends. And I’m not going to release you when you’re clearly ill.”

Bastard. Is he trying to make me feel useless? My hands curl into fists, but who am I going to hit? Doc? He won’t fight back. Nothing like impotent anger to make you feel ineffectual.

“Fine,” I bite out. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come in here with you, though. I can’t believe you tricked me into hiding out.”

Again. I hate this. I’ve got to find some way out of here, or I’ll never be able to live with myself. I can’t devolve back into the selfish bitch who doesn’t care whose ass is on the line so long as it isn’t her own. I won’t let fear become my mistress.

“I know,” he says gently. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. Try to ignore the noise. It’ll be over soon. They never stay long; not sure why that is either. If I can put the pieces together, we might have a chance, even weakened as we are. At any rate, let’s get started on your tests.”

“Then cure me. Or kill me. Because I can’t live like this.”

 

 

 

CHAPTER 27

Soon as Doc looks away, l lunge toward the emergency

override panel. Unfortunately, I’m not as fast or agile as I used to be, and he wheels round to catch my wrist. He radiates frustration, but before he can yell at me, a boom sounds.

The whole house shakes.

I hit the floor, expecting the roof to come down on me. “I didn’t know Lachion was prone to quakes.”

“It’s not,” Doc says grimly. “They’re bombarding us.”

I’m not even sure what that means. For a moment, I envision Clan McCullough dropping giant rocks on us. “They’re what?”

On his hands and knees beneath the exam table with me, he looks as though he’s considering one of his university-style explanations. Then he shakes his head. “This is a hostile takeover, Jax. Welcome to stage two.”

Shit. We
did
come at a bad time.

Between Teras who attack on command and the McCullough war machines, things don’t look good. Oh, Mary, I might never see March again. Dread threatens to close off my throat. It can’t end here, before I can make him understand.

“I guess we were lucky to land before they struck.”

He stays low, duckwalking toward the back of the lab. “I suspect your arrival prompted them to step up the attack. They can’t take the chance the ship carried reinforcements, or that the Conglomerate means to interfere with local politics. You’re not just Jax anymore, Ambassador. Not that you were ever ‘just’ anything.”

He can’t be serious. I did this by showing up? I
am
the fucking butterfly, causing ripples everywhere I go.

“It’s a tiny little cutter,” I protest, crawling after him. Wherever he’s going, I’m headed there, too. We weave around a tall metal cylinder that quivers like it wants to crush my spine. “What the hell could we possibly haul? And it’s not like we could’ve carried many mercs in it.”

“A fair number of Threshers would fit into the cargo hold,” he answers over his shoulder.

BOOK: Wanderlust
8.78Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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