Colliding Worlds Trilogy 01 - Collision (19 page)

The plan went into effect hours ago. After the loose lips routine, all the participants faked their departures, and then retreated to the com-room. Now it was the waiting game. What was going to happen, Sienna wasn’t sure. But something had to. They’d been on the losing team too long. They needed this win.

With her feet propped up on the table, Sienna rocked her chair on two legs. It had never occurred to her how boring security guards’ jobs could be. Waiting, watching monitors, and waiting some more.

No one talked. They all sat there and literally twiddled their thumbs in utter boredom. Sienna grabbed the bag of chips she’d brought and popped it open. She pulled out one chip and crunched it. Feeling like she was being watched, she looked up. Everyone in the room stared at her. She held out the bag, and five palms raced out to meet her. Clearly, she wasn’t the only person who ate when she was bored. She dumped out chips into the hands waiting like hungry little birds, and the room erupted in a comical chorus of crunches. Looking with disappointment at an empty bag a couple minutes later, she wished she’d brought a second bag. Now it was back to the boring waiting part.

“How’s the leg?”

Surprised, Sienna’s chair dropped to all fours with a clang. “Well, Nalea, it’s still attached and hurts like a bitch. But I’ve discovered I could make a second career doing weather. My leg throbs every time it’s going to rain.”

Tanel the com-tec spoke next. “We have computers that track and forecast the weather for us. They are one hundred percent accurate. I believe your leg cannot be as accurate.”

“You’d be surprised,” Sienna muttered back.

With no warning, the lights flickered on several screens, and then went out. Sienna hastily wiped her orange-colored fingers across her jeans and glanced over the wall of monitors. She frowned. Lights were still on across the base. That was, everywhere except in the vacant officers’ hallway. Being in an underground bunker, the hallway had no windows — like all hallways — leaving the screens pitch black. Even the nocturnal Sephians couldn’t see in that kind of dark without some kind of help.

“We’re blind,” she spoke aloud. When she didn’t get a response, she looked up at Apolo, who didn’t look the least bit surprised. “You were expecting this?”

He nodded. “I suspected our prey may try this, and I had a separate power backup system installed today in this hallway.”

“Why aren’t you turning it on?” she asked.

“Patience. Let our prey get comfortable,” he replied.

Seconds felt like minutes. Legian, Nalea and Jax scanned the monitors, and Sienna followed their lead. The com-tec’s fingers danced energetically across the keyless keyboard. Then, a neon-outlined shape emerged on the screen. It wasn’t infrared. Whatever it was showed a lot more features and colors than any infrared image she’d seen before. She could see a man’s shape, the outline detailed enough to show he was wearing some kind of goggles.

“And there is our prey,” Apolo said to no one in particular.

Sienna’s eyes widened. “Cool.”

Apolo glanced down and gave her a smile before turning his attention back to the screen. They watched in silence as the Technicolor shape jogged down the hallway and stopped right outside Apolo’s door. Sure enough, a moment later, after looking from side to side like he had Tourette’s, the shape punched in a code and entered.

Sienna leaned forward even closer to the screen. “And so the fish goes for the worm.”

“Pull the bios on the intruder. When we get to my room, reset the power,” Apolo commanded the com-tec before turning to the two members of his trinity. “Let’s go.”

Apolo grabbed a handful of mini glow stick-slash-flashlights and handed one each to Legian and Nalea. The three of them moved as one. Sienna grabbed her cane. Jax and she stepped in behind them, but Legian held out an arm, blocking them both.

“This is a Sephian matter. Watch from here. We’ve got this covered.”

She put a hand on her hip. “Sephian matter, my ass.”

Jax nodded in agreement but stood back.

With a grumble, she reluctantly did the same. She tended to save up her personal battles for when it really mattered. And she knew she didn’t need to be there. She’d only get in the way. Three against one were pretty safe odds. At least she hoped they were. She wasn’t worried for Legian. More than anything, she felt a stab of jealousy. A part of her hated missing out on the action.

Legian smiled in response to her pout, and she blew him a kiss. In an over-exaggerated move, he caught the flying kiss in his hand. It may have been a little cheesy and a whole lot dorky, but she loved their little games anyway.

After the door shut off contact, Sienna stepped up behind Tanel, the com-tec who was entrenched with his computer. His fingers ran across the flat keyboard, and the neon humanoid shape on monitor to his left flashed as a string of symbols measured its shape and size and compared it against the stats of all the Sephians on the base. Names and pictures scrolled down the screen faster than she could follow.

She took off her drades and cleaned the lenses with the edge of her shirt. Sliding them back on, she turned her attention to the larger monitor in front and watched three neon shapes move stealthily down the hallway. Impressed, she blew out a long breath. “They move like freaking vampires.”

“Their experience shows. It’s clear they have a history together,” Jax answered.

“Speaking of histories, how’s Risa?”

He shot a quick glance in her direction before turning back to the screen. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She cocked her head. “Oh, c’mon. You two totally hit it off. There’s no denying it.”

He shrugged nonchalantly.

“I think you two would make a cute couple. But watch out for the
soullare
, though. If it shows up, you two are lock, stock, and barrel for the long run. Go straight to lover’s jail. You will not pass Go. You will not collect your two hundred bucks.”

“I thought you said it showed up for you the first time you hooked up with Legian.”

“Yes, but I heard that the
soullare
sometimes takes weeks or months before it appears.”

He looked forward at the screen, avoiding eye contact. “Commitment’s not my thing. It’s better that it doesn’t happen.” He sounded more disappointed than she was sure he intended.

“Fair warning. It very well could still happen.”

“The bio information on the intruder is coming up now,” Tanel announced in the familiar hand-held mic as he continued to type on the console in front of him. “His name is Pilin. He’s a level four operations engineer.”

“A handy man. And not a very good ops-tec if he’s only a level four,” Sienna said, speaking her thoughts out loud as much for her benefit as for Jax’s credit.

Jax leaned closer to the screens. “It would take some skill to cut the power in just the officer’s hall.”

“And even more skill to cut the power and get to Apolo’s room in under a minute.”

“He’s got a partner,” they said in stereo.

Sienna watched Apolo’s team reach his door. He swiped his hand over the wall, and the door opened. “Cool trick.” Apolo’s high-tech gadgets were darn impressive, and she hoped he’d share a few of those perks with the Americans. They’d be great enticements for political negotiations.

She heard Apolo’s voice come through the hand-held com. Tanel tapped several places on the keyboard at the same time, and the lights flared back on. She watched in full view as Legian and Nalea broke to the sides of Apolo, who went head-on for the Sephian male who was currently displaying a deer-in-the-headlights look now that the power was back on.

As soon as Pilin realized he was no longer alone, he tried to bolt. Apolo tackled him before he took two steps toward the door. Apolo pulled the traitor to his feet and punched Pilin with his good arm. Even on the small screen, Sienna could see blood fly from the force of Apolo’s hit. It was the most angry she’d ever seen him. The Sephian leader was seriously
pah-issed.

“Good work, Tanel.” With a quick look in Jax’s direction, she checked the gun holstered in her hip belt, grabbed her cane, and hobbled out of the room. The door didn’t shut behind her. Rather, her compatriot followed and fell into step at her side, and together, they strode to Apolo’s room.

During the planning meeting, they were all given Apolo’s lock pad code as a precaution, and she punched in the ten-digit PIN. The door opened, and Nalea jerked her gun toward the newcomers, then turned her attention back onto Pilin without any further acknowledgment of Sienna and Jax’s entry to the tense scene.

Sienna and Jax stepped gingerly into the lounge to find the traitor whimpering on his knees, blood pouring from a broken nose, hands banded behind his back. Nalea held a gun to his head and kept her other hand on his clothed shoulder, careful not to come into direct skin-to-skin contact, preventing Pilin from healing himself.

Legian glanced up. Sienna gave a little nod, and he refocused his attention on the task at hand.

Apolo paced back and forth in front of the prisoner, pausing long enough to cast a glare at Pilin midway through each lap.

The room was comfortable and clean and nothing like she would have envisioned an interrogation room to look. But, the dark mood betrayed any notions that what was taking place right now could be anything unimportant and trivial.

She leaned back against the wall, resting the handle of the cane on the end table. She cursed the day she gained the limp. But there was no use cursing. At least she still had the dang thing. The handicap pissed her off — it gave her a clear weakness anyone could see. Crossing her arms over her chest, Sienna made herself as small as possible to stay out of the way in the hostile space Apolo consumed.

Apolo continued to pace, like he was trying to tamp down his anger. After a few more laps, he stopped before the kneeling Sephian.

“How could you betray your own people?”

“Wha — what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Apolo stared down at him, and then kicked him in the gut. Sienna cringed as the prisoner lost his lunch with a simultaneous cry.

Oblivious to the mess, Apolo scowled and grabbed the man’s collar. “How could you betray your own people?”

The prisoner coughed, fighting for breath. “I didn’t. I swear it.”

“You are a liar and a traitor. Your name will forever be a scar upon our people.”

Tears ran down Pilin’s eyes. He tried to get up, but Nalea held the weaker man down with one hand.

“I remember you, Pilin. You have been in detention block before. It was theft if I recall. Oh, yes. You had stolen alcohol from the Commons. Is that how they got to you? Through your human addiction?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I am faithful to our race. I swear it.”

“And, I suppose now you’re telling me that breaking into my room is a simple misunderstanding?”

“Yes!”

Apolo didn’t appear to like that answer because he back-handed the Sephian across the face. The prisoner cried out.

“Please, please.”

“You beg for mercy now? From the same people you sought to betray? Why would you betray your people, Pilin?”

He shook his head violently. “I would never betray our people.”

Apolo slapped him. “I don’t believe you. Every time I think you’re lying I will mark you. Do you understand?”

The man whimpered. Apolo nodded to Nalea, who bent Pilin’s arms back in an unnatural position. The Sephian screamed in pain.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes!”

“Good. That’s a start.”

“Who do you work for, Pilin?”

“No one,” he cried.

Apolo raised his hand and Pilin winced. The sound of the slap made Sienna wince in sympathy pain.
Tell the truth, man.

“I’m going to ask you one more time. Who do you work for?”

Pilin’s shoulders shook from his uncontrollable sobs. “I swear, Apolo. I came here for a bottle of whiskey. I heard you kept the good stuff here. That’s all. I swear it.”

Apolo lifted his hand, and Pilin let out a yelp. But he didn’t slap him. Instead, he bent down to come eye to eye with the prisoner. “Who told you that, son?”

He shook his head with his sobs. “It was a rumor I heard at the Commons.”

“And who cut the power?”

“I — I don’t know. The engineering log showed a power test was scheduled to be conducted in the officers’ hall at ten o’clock. That’s what it said. Precisely ten o’clock. So I grabbed night gear just in case. I thought it was a lucky break. That’s all.”

Apolo grabbed Pilin’s chin who yelped. “You know the punishment for treason, Pilin?”

The poor man looked up with a look of shock. “Tr-treason?”

“Yes, treason. What you did tonight, regardless of intentions, was treason. Tell me. Who sent you here?”

He sobbed. “No one. I swear it,” he stammered before breaking down into an uncontrollable crying fit.

Apolo came to his feet. “Sephian law states the punishment for treason is immediate death, Pilin. I will make yours swift out of pity because you were played the fool.”

In a blur of movement, Apolo grabbed and twisted the man’s head. A loud crack broke the silence. Sienna inhaled sharply, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. She’d never seen an execution before. It was worse than anything she’d seen on TV. This was far too real.

At that moment, she was glad she was leaning against the wall. Otherwise, she was sure her knees would have given out. She couldn’t take her eyes off the man lying on the floor, his neck bent at an unnatural angle. She didn’t even hear Legian move until a hand touched her shoulder.

She jumped.

He brushed a hand down her cheek. “You okay?”

The question sounded more like a command, and she nodded with as much confidence as she could muster. She knew she had to stay here.
You can’t play the game without getting a little mud on you.

He nodded, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and stayed at her side. She looked around the room. None of the others seemed fazed by what Apolo had done. They all watched Apolo, unmoving. Apolo stared at the wall, his mind obviously somewhere else.