Abysm (27 page)

What was he hearing? It wasn’t on their group channel. Someone was feeding it to him.

He blinked.

Alex, there will be consequences.

I accept them. Burn the
yebanaya
neurons out, then do whatever else you have to do so I can’t come here ever again. Do it now.

Alex—

Do it now, goddammit! While I still have the courage to see it through. Please, Valkyrie. It’s the only way. Please.

Very well…it is done.

I know. I can feel it. The ship is yours.

I will take good care of her.

I know that, too.

Alex opened her eyes. Breathed in air, real air—and gagged on the stench of death riding the smoke and debris particles. Coughs wracked her chest as she peered around frantically.

He was gone. She’d lingered too long in her goodbyes.

“Caleb?” She stumbled to her feet in a clumsy rush of limbs. Her voice rose. “Caleb?”

But he was nowhere to be seen, and he couldn’t possibly hear her above the sirens and the
noise
.

A hand landed on her shoulder; she whipped on it, realizing as she did that it didn’t belong to him.

“Ma’am, are you hurt? Do you need aid?”

She twisted out of the man’s grasp and shook her head, then spun in a circle, searching.

Panic encroached at the edges of her vision. She couldn’t see anything through the smoke. Wasn’t there an intersection somewhere? She stumbled forward, putting the worst of the destruction behind her. She needed to get her bearings so she could find him. He couldn’t have gone far, but it didn’t matter how far—

Caleb rounded the corner of the building across the street. Through the ghostly light the floodlights created amid the smoke, she would recognize his profile from parsecs distant.

She broke into a run…until she drew close enough to see the tears streaming down his cheeks. In the time she’d known him she’d never seen him shed a single tear.

Her steps slowed to a stop a few meters away; she was too afraid to cross the final distance. Her heart pounded against her chest so hard it threatened to break her ribs. “I severed my connection to the ship. Permanently. I can’t go—”

“I know.”

“How?” She glared at the heavens even as tears began flowing down her own cheeks. “Valkyrie….”
Thank you.

“You did that…did you do it for me?”

She nodded vehemently. “Yes. For you. For me—you were right, it wasn’t good for me. For us.”

She gazed at him hopefully, trying her damnedest to maintain an iota of poise. “Is it too late? I made so many mistakes—”

In a blink he had closed the distance and gathered her up in his arms. “No—” His words broke off in a sob as he buried his face in her neck.

Oh god oh god had she broken him? What should she do? “Shhh. Please, I’m so sorry. I love you. I know I hurt you—I’m sorry.”

She wound her fingers into his hair—it was too short for this!—and held him tighter against her. “It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m so sorry. Forgive me—no, I’ll find some way to earn your forgiveness. Just say you’ll stay and give me the chance to earn it.”

Was she crying as hard as him now? “Stay, stay, stay….”

She was still whispering it, over and over, when he pulled away to look at her, eyes red and glistening. “I’ll stay.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“You, uh—” he blinked past more tears “—you mentioned that.”

She cringed. “I really did, didn’t I?”

“Once or twice.” He relinquished his hold on her to bring a hand to his face and wipe at his cheeks, regaining a measure of composure.

More emergency personnel and equipment began arriving, erecting barriers and pushing people out of the area.

He urged her back to the nearest wall. “I don’t want you to resent me. This was everything you ever dreamed of. Everything you ever wanted.”

“Turns out, no. It wasn’t worth the price.” There would also be a price to pay for this choice, one she’d pay soon enough. But not now. Not here. “Turns out, you are.”

He regarded her with pure, destroyed, hopeful eyes, and damn but he’d never looked this handsome. Broken, vulnerable and exposed, he’d never looked stronger, and she realized she’d trust him to lead her anywhere in this fucked-up multiverse.

He started to speak; cleared his throat. She knew the feeling. “Valkyrie said there would be consequences to you doing this.”

Shared the whole damn scene with him, did you?
She gave him an exaggerated shrug. “Some headaches for a few weeks. I’ll try not to be too cranky.”

“I’d like for you to be cranky. I’ve missed it.”

“Oh, okay then.” She dropped her forehead to his and brought her fingertips to either side of his neck.

There were things she wanted to say, but they were all jumbled up in her head and if she tried they’d come out backwards and mixed up and wrong.

There were things she needed to say, but she was hanging on by a fraying thread and feared if she tried the thread would break, sending her plummeting alone into the abysm.

There were things she would have to say, but they should wait for later. After.

A loud rumble thundered behind her as another section of scaffolding belatedly collapsed. She stared at him in horror. “I blew up a building.”

He tilted his head in a wince. “You did.”

“With people in it.”

“Terrorists. Murderers.”

She fixated on her hand along his neck. She’d accidentally transferred most of the blood onto him, but streaks remained between her knuckles. “Are you sure? What if some random—”

“I’m sure. We had good intel this was exclusively an OTS safe house. Alex, I would have killed everyone inside that building without hesitation. I meant what I said earlier. I’m sorry you were the one to do it, but not because it was wrong—because I wanted to save you from this.” He gently wrapped his hand around hers. He meant the blood. He meant the guilt.

Alex:  Morgan?

Morgan:  Holy Christ, Alex. Nice shooting.

Alex:  Shut up. I simply need to know…am I in trouble? With the authorities, which is kind of you?

Morgan:  Nah. We’ll get it straightened out so you don’t take any heat. As far as the public is concerned, the RRF neutralized a dangerous threat.

Alex:  Thank you.

“I should have listened to you. But I can’t undo it now. I’ll have to live with it.”

“I’ll help. I have a bit of experience at this sort of thing.” His throat worked. “Killing, and coping with it.”

She pulled him closer and crushed his lips with hers. She was lightheaded and reeling, but the frayed thread hadn’t broken and if it did now she thought he’d probably catch her before she fell too far.

Sounds and activity intruded on them; she reluctantly began to withdraw, but he refused to let her go. That was fine, too. She murmured against his lips. “Morgan says no one’s going to show up and arrest me, so…can we get out of here? I need…I need a shower and clean clothes. Mostly, I need you.”

“We can absolutely get out of here.” She felt the curl of his smile in his kiss. “Where’s the ship?”

“Um…I have no idea. Valkyrie?”

‘Allow me to provide you a locator.’

Two blocks east, one block north, hiding stealthed in a park. She had no recollection of landing there. Or of walking from there to the burned-out safe house.

When they reached the ship she followed Caleb up the ramp, her hand in his. The airlock closed behind her. “Valkyrie, can you take us back to the hangar bay?”

‘May I suggest returning to orbit above Romane for the night instead?’

“Well….”

When the time comes, you may appreciate the solace of the stars.

Oh…I suppose I might.

“That sounds lovely, Valkyrie. Thank you.”

Caleb turned then and gathered her into his arms once more, where she intended to stay for many hours.

Brooklyn watched the emergency crews working to douse the persistent flames with a critical eye.

In addition to the Winslow cocksucker, they’d captured one other escapee, and both were transported to Romane’s most secure lockdown facility with a full complement of guards. Three injured people had been rescued from the wreckage; they would be under guard at the hospital for now.

It sure looked as if everyone else was a corpse. She’d reinforced a wide perimeter net and tasked several aerial cams with patrolling the area to cover all the bases, but the strike had been quick, efficient and breathtakingly destructive. Terrestrial buildings were not built to withstand lasers designed for the rigors of space.

Morgan appeared beside her unannounced. Brooklyn had barely heard the woman’s approach through the cacophony of heavy equipment, flames and the occasional yell.

Now her eyes cut over briefly. The aerial surveillance had been handed off to the drone cams, but Morgan still wore her flight suit beneath her jacket. “Are you sure you didn’t do this?”

“Of course I’m sure. Kind of wish I had. It got the job done.” Morgan threw her a scowl. “Did you think I lied to you?”

“No. I only meant it—”

“Your team had reached the target. I wouldn’t have put your people at risk. I wouldn’t have….” She snorted and turned away.

“I know.”

“Oh? You know…what, exactly?”

Brooklyn gritted her teeth. Morgan could be so damn prickly sometimes. “I know you wouldn’t deliberately put any of our people in unnecessary danger. I was simply going to say this looked like your work. It was…supposed to be a compliment.” She rolled her eyes and watched as a crane executed a controlled dismantlement of the final section of wall which remained standing.

Seconds ticked by, and finally she glanced over to find Morgan staring at her, face screwed up. “What?”

“A compliment, huh?”

“That is what I said, yes. Simmer down. It’s all good.”

A corner of Morgan’s mouth twitched. Gradually her gaze returned to the wreckage. “Winslow’s kid. Didn’t see that one coming. It’s bound to make things interesting.”

“They weren’t already interesting?”

“Nah. Well, maybe a little. I’m glad you got the kid alive, so we can torture him.”

“I thought you didn’t condone torture, what with being in command and having
responsibilities
.”

“Yeah, but he killed Gianno, and I was just starting to like her. Will you torture him for me?”

“No, Morgan, I won’t torture him for you.”

“Damn.” She smiled playfully—good, as Brooklyn had almost been convinced she was serious. “Fine, we’ll play by the rules and respect his rights and whatever. What we won’t do is hand him over to the Alliance anytime soon.”

“Nope. You let Alex vanish?”

“It’s not as if I can’t reach her if I need to. But yes. And as for this—” she tossed a hand in the direction of the smoldering building “—we’ll say I did it.”

“Dammit, Lekkas.”

“Kidding. Sort of. Officially, the RRF as a unit eliminated a continuing threat to the public’s safety. Period, end of discussion, no?”

“If we’re lucky. All right, it’s the official line.” Honestly, she was relieved Morgan made the call about Alex. And Morgan
was
in charge, after all. “I suspect OTS threw everything they could muster at us this week.”

“And we kicked their self-righteous, bigoted asses.”

“We did.” She paused to review incoming cam footage and clear it. “All things considered, I think this might work out.”

“ ‘This?’ ”

“The IDCC. The Rapid Response Force. The work.”

“Oh. For a second there, it seemed like you meant us. But that would be too crazy an idea.”

Brooklyn wiped ash and sweat off her forehead. Or not; it had been pathetically naive for her to think any of it would work out in any real sense.

Her life had become a series of ‘for now’ circumstances. And for now, she found herself here on Romane. In this blatantly doomed relationship. Standing in the middle of a burning street set ablaze by a woman she was of the personal, if fairly uninformed, opinion was hardly human any longer. And this was in comparison to Morgan, who was only marginally more human.