Abysm (30 page)

P.S.: I am also sending my research to the Noetica Prevos, with much optimism for where they can take it. Montegreu’s key is for you alone.

28

SIYANE

R
OMANE

C
ALEB AWOKE WITH A START
, terror yanking him from sleep to alertness.

Alex was again gone from the bed.

Valkyrie!

He leapt up, not waiting on a response before checking the corners and the space behind the chair and finding them empty. “Alex?”

“Up here.”

His careening heart returned to its proper location. Her voice sounded a bit strained, but she was talking. And she was here. He rushed up the stairs.

She stood at the stove in a lopsided tank and wrinkled shorts. Her hair was pulled back in a messy, unbrushed tail. Her skin was pale, almost pasty; her eyes remained bloodshot and her pupils still far too dilated.

But she smiled—honest to heaven
smiled
—at him. “You’re five minutes early. I was making you breakfast. Don’t be mad at Valkyrie. I forbade her from waking you.”

He’d never stopped moving, and when he reached her he brought up both hands to clasp her face and inspect it in concern. “Are you all right?”

Her lips parted. She exhaled softly, and her too-perky countenance faltered. “No. Not really. But I will be.”

He wrapped his arms around her. He recognized it was far from over, but he was just so damn relieved to feel her return the embrace, free of shivers and tears. “If we had known this was going to happen, I never would have pushed you like I did. We could’ve handled all this differently.”

She winced. “I did know.”

“What?”

“I mean, maybe I didn’t know it was going to be quite
that
bad. I’ve never had to go through a crash detox before. But I knew…I knew it would hurt. I knew it would be hard.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought it would sound like another excuse.”

“Not—I mean after. Last night. Why didn’t you warn me?”

“I didn’t want anything to spoil the sublime make-up sex.”

He rolled his eyes. “Alex.”

“I mean it. Or I mean…I didn’t want to let anything mar what was a special, wondrous evening. I wanted as many hours of perfection, of bliss, as I could steal, and I wanted you to have them, too.”

“Hmm. And it was perfect. Thank you. You still shouldn’t have kept it from me. You scared me half to death.”

“I’m sorry for that, among so many other things. I ought to have considered what….” She drifted off for a moment, then blinked. “Aren’t you going to ask me why I didn’t tell you the true extent of what was happening to me? Earlier?”

He ran his palm along her cheek; he couldn’t seem to stop touching her. “No. I get why you didn’t.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Right up until the last minute, you thought you were going to be able to bring it under control through sheer force of will alone. And you deeply hoped to be able to succeed.” He paused. “Also, I imagine you didn’t want to give it up.”

Her eyes slid away, but he reached up and urged her chin back until she looked at him. “That’s what addiction
is
, Alex. And even someone as remarkable as you is not immune from its insidious clutches.”

She laughed haltingly. “I really tried to be.”

“I’ve no doubt you did.” Now he instinctively withdrew. “But I should have seen it. I should have realized what was happening. I could’ve helped you, but instead I made it so much worse. I can’t begin to—”

Her face blanched. “No. This is
not
your fault.”

“But I acted—”

“
No.
I won’t let you take any responsibility for my poor choices. Caleb, listen to me, because I need to say something, now, before it gets lost in all the noise. What you did for me last night? No one has ever taken care of me like you did. No one has ever made me feel so safe, so protected, so…loved.”

His chest warmed in the glow of her words, but he tried to make light of it. “Not since your dad when you were a kid anyway, right?”

“No. Never. This is what I’m telling you. I can’t even articulate properly what it meant—what it means—to me. It’s why I was making you a surprise breakfast, to say thank you….”

Her expression darkened, as if a storm rushed in to envelope her. “Which, once I reconsider it, is an incredibly lame, s-stupid way to say ‘thank you.’ ” She shuddered. “W-why did I think something as meaningless as b-breakfast—”

“Hey.” He gently grasped her shoulders. When she started to wrench away, he coaxed her back. He felt a tremble pass through her skin beneath his hands. “It’s a fantastic ‘thank you.’ I’m starving. But if you want to do more to thank me, I have an additional, equally great way for you to do it.”

She gazed at him with such hope his heart broke all over again. “You do?”

“I do. It’s this: let me be here for you.”

Her nose wrinkled up in consternation. “But that’s the p-point. You
were
here for me—”

“Now I need you to listen to me for a minute. I know last night was probably the worst it will ever be in most ways, but I also know this isn’t over for you. There are going to be good days and bad days—bad hours, maybe bad weeks. I’m okay with that.

“More than being okay with it, the one thing I desire most in the world is to be able to help you during those bad days and hours and weeks, even if ‘helping’ simply means holding you.”

“I don’t—”

“Hush. I’m not done.” He smiled tenderly and kept his voice the same way. “You fear it will make you look weak, and you don’t want to look weak in front of me. But last night solidified for me something I’ve suspected for a long time: you are by far the strongest, toughest, most resilient person I have ever met, and I am in awe of you. Holding you while you cry and scream and shake will only serve to reinforce what I know to be true, and it would be my privilege to do so.”

He cupped her cheek. “Because I know you are strong, let me see you when you are weak. You never need to prove a damn thing to me, so don’t do this alone. Please?”

She blinked, and a single tear escaped to trail down her cheek. “I promise, I won’t hide. Truthfully, I don’t think I can any longer, but…I won’t try.”

She glanced behind her toward the stove; when she turned back to him a few more tears flowed, but she was smiling again. “Now are you planning to put on pants, or are we eating in the bed?”

He chuckled, flush with too many emotions to resolve into a mood and not caring in the slightest that he had in fact been naked for the entirety of the conversation. It was called marriage—something he was grateful to still have in the morning light. “Um…I think we’re eating in the bed.”

29

SENECA

C
AVARE

A
GENT
D
UARTE SIGNALED THE MISSION
was a go, and the incursion team blew the front door to the OTS bunker—and the back door. Snipers covered the roof from atop neighboring buildings. Flashbang grenades followed as they swarmed inside.

Thermal imaging had pinpointed the locations of the seven people inside, and the first wave went straight for them, while the next swept every corner of every room.

Agent Benito:  Priority Target Beta secured.

Duarte moved into the kitchen as two of his men hauled a woman up off the floor and secured wrist restraints on her.

“You are hereby placed under arrest for the murders of three hundred fourteen military personnel, as well as for conspiracy to kidnap Senators Garza and Viktin. Additional charges are pending.”

Agent Duarte:  Priority Target Alpha secured.

Graham watched the feed as the young woman struggled as viciously as a crazed animal against the restraints. She wouldn’t get away. They’d sent a
lot
of agents. The capture of Faith Quillen and Ulric Toscano plus the other five in residence brought the number of OTS members under arrest on Seneca to twenty-eight.

Small comfort for all the lives the terrorists had taken, but justice late was better than no justice at all…even if it didn’t feel particularly like it at the moment.

Aristide Vranas stood at the window, silently staring out. He’d been that way for a while.

Graham cleared his throat. “We’re bringing in two of the OTS big guns now. They may give us a few more names, but this should mostly eradicate OTS’ presence here. Mostly thanks to Division’s Prevo, I’ll point out.”

“Huh. Well…good, then. And Romane has the leader in custody?”

Graham nodded in confirmation. “This information, and definitely his name, is being kept confidential for now. We want to give Admiral Solovy a chance to make the best play possible. It’s her call when to release his identity, but I have reason to believe it will be soon.”

“As long as he pays.”

“He will.”

The Chairman finally turned his back on the window. “I’ve been formally invited to Romane to sign a mutual non-aggression treaty with the IDCC. I’ll do it. But first I have to bury my friend.”

Graham didn’t have any good response to soften the blow, so he kept silent. Gianno’s body would lie in state for three days, as was customary upon the death of someone of her stature, then be the subject of the most ostentatious funeral ceremony Seneca had ever seen.

The Federation didn’t bring out the pomp and gilt for much, but it goddamn honored its fallen war heroes properly.

Vranas shot him a weary look. “Before she…Eleni said Admiral Solovy didn’t want us to express public support for her campaign, for strategic reasons. I’d damn sure like to do exactly that about now. I’m feeling a powerful need to give a righteous fire-burner of a speech.”

“I know. But we should adhere to Solovy’s wishes. Trust me when I say we’re helping quite a lot behind the scenes. She seems to have the situation well in hand right now, and we don’t want to tamper with what’s working.

“But in the unlikely event Winslow should somehow prevail in the short term, we will lower a galaxy-sized hammer on the Prime Minister.”

EARTH

L
ONDON
E
ARTH
A
LLIANCE
S
ECURITY
M
INISTRY

Minister of Security Terry Jameson scrutinized the report a second time. “Where did you get all this information?”

“I uncovered some of it in my own investigation. Most of it came from precisely where you would expect—the accused.”

“Admirals Solovy and Rychen?”

Lange nodded. If he wanted to convince Jameson to risk his neck to take down the prime minister, forthrightness must be the order of the day…to a point. “Or their people, yes. But I didn’t accept it blindly. I checked it out thoroughly, and it’s all good intel. Some of it is from intelligence sources, but with the proper confidentiality agreements we can produce testimony.”

Jameson scratched at his head. “There were already rumors spreading about the blackmail of certain representatives and administration members. This military information, though? Simply leveling the accusation that the prime minister sent special forces against IDCC officials on Romane soil may mean the end of her career—or ours, if we can’t prove it.”

“We can prove it, sir. They’re still sorting through the mess on Romane, but we’ve got visuals and physical evidence. I expect to have forensics data by tomorrow confirming the presence of at least two Alliance special forces members at the scene of Dr. Canivon’s murder and another two at IDCC Headquarters.”

“Those could be excused away by ‘wrong place, wrong time.’ We need more.”

“Official orders leave trails, sir. Once we—once officers not beholden to the prime minister—are able to regain control of all aspects of the military infrastructure, I believe we’ll find those trails.”

“If, Major. And it’s a big ‘if.’ ”

“Yes, sir. But we are duty-bound to act on this evidence.”

“Lucky us.” He sighed. “I agree. The trick now is getting the opportunity to do so. The prime minister was able to accomplish all this because she’s enormously powerful, with other powerful people in her pocket. If we don’t play this perfectly, we’ll find ourselves on the curb and the evidence buried.”

Lange nodded agreement. “Sir, there’s one more piece of intel. I, um, held it back until I was able to gauge your reaction to the rest.”

“Your ace in the hole, and a get-out-of-jail-free card if I turned out to be in the prime minister’s pocket as well?”

“Wouldn’t you do the same, sir, were you in my position?”

“Without a doubt, but hand it over. I’m in now.”

He sent the file. Jameson scanned it, eyes widening as he did. “Are we
positive
?”

“We are. The identification originated from Federation Intelligence, but they have fully authenticated it and are willing to stand by it. They have records of multiple communications between him and known members of OTS in which he issued kill orders. Plus, he was captured at the scene of the OTS safe house on Romane.”