Finding Jess (First Wave) (9 page)

“What the hell is going on
Banatar?” Ivint demanded once they were inside the house as Banatar’s men began
handing them back their weapons.

“We have a problem sir. See my
people did not fire that pulsar blast. We assumed it was a deal gone wrong with
the Relians. If we didn’t fire it, and you didn’t fire it, then we need to find
out who did.” Banatar answered respectfully.

“Jess? Jess is that you?” Jess
looked up at the man decked out in the bulletproof gear heading towards her.
She shrank back in fear as the man reached a gloved hand towards her.

“Oh Jess! It’s me, True!” The
entire room watched in fascination as the man removed his balaclava to reveal a
full head of dark auburn hair tied at the nape of her neck. Her full lips were
broken out into a beautiful smile as she beamed at Jess.

“True?” Jess asked in surprise.
She’d really never thought she would ever see her again once she’d helped her
escape the camp. Pushing herself to her feet, she threw herself into True’s
arms and hugged her tightly.

The men were amused and dismayed as
they watched the two women hug and talk to each other so fast they couldn’t
understand but every other word they were saying.

“You brought a female? To battle?”
The innocently asked question brought the entire room to a dead silence; the
rest of the Banatar’s men becoming tense once again.

“Is that the Jess that helped you
escape?” Banatar asked walking towards the females.

“Yes! Look they rescued her and
even fixed her legs Daddy!” The girl told her father, tears of happiness
rolling down her porcelain cheeks as she hugged Jess tightly.

“Jess, you have my gratitude for
saving my daughter.” Banatar hugged both girls as they squealed and pretended
to be crushed.

“Sirs, we’ve run scans on the
entire area under the shield and the only humanoid heat signatures we are
detecting match the count of our men and the Valendran party.” A round of
curses erupted around the room as the news came over the comm. Banatar walked
over to Ivint and Reven and bent his head to theirs in whispered conversation.

“You can’t be serious!” Ivint
growled loudly before quieting his voice.

Everyone looked expectantly at the
three men as they turned toward the group.

“All teams unmask and prepare for
the shield to go down. Recon at Alpha, Jericho, Delta and Omega. The Valendran
teams with you right now, will be going with you.” Banatar spoke into his comm.

The Valendran males watched in
dawning anger and respect as all but two of the twenty masks revealed females
and not the all-male force, they had thought it had been.

“Teams you are to go with Banatar’s
forces to their Recon point. You will receive full instructions from there.”
Reven said reluctantly into his comm.

“Everyone in this room will be
coming with us.” Ivint informed the room in general.

Wary and protective of the female
warriors the males paired up with each of them as, they followed Banatar and
Ivint back to the road.

“Climb on my back, Amalaya.” Amun
offered as he kneeled down.

“Oh seriously girl, do it! Wait
until I show you my room when we get there! And my rings! Girl those things you
made me Rock!” True chattered happily. Amun laughed at the way True jumped from
subject to subject so fast you had to really pay attention, or you’d be lost.

Jess seemed shell shocked by her
friend’s constant chatter and absently climbed onto Amun’s back. He wished he’d
known that was all it took to make her spellbound, he’d have tried it on her
much sooner.

“Wait! Wait! What do you have
Gibly?” Scaden asked the cat.

“I found when I caught bad man. But
he kick me and got away. He drop this.” Gibly said, and then licked the front
paw he held limply at his side.

Amun gently slid Jess off of his
back and waited until True had helped steady her before heading to Gibly’s side
with his medkit. Jess had followed and let the cat lay in her lap so Amun could
look at his foot.

“That was very brave of you Gibly.
Don’t you worry; Amun is going to make you better.” Jess said comfortingly as
she stroked his silky coat.

Scaden, Ivint, Reven and Banatar
stared intently at the object in Scaden’s hand before cursing loudly. It was a
Valendran belt comm.

“Damn it! All teams hold for
alternate location. Reroute to Echo Charlie Halo immediately.” Banatar said
angrily into his comm.

“It’ll be easier at this location
to inspect your men in a protective environment and see which one is missing
their comm.” He explained to Ivint and Reven.

“I agree. We can’t take them back
to our bases until we know who did this. Gibly would you be able to recognize
him if you saw him again?” Ivint asked the cat.

“Yes. He not nice man.” Gibly
growled.

“Jess is right Gibly; you were very
brave. I am grateful you were here.” Ivint told the cat with a smile.

“Well we know it isn’t one of us
here but show your belt comm’s as I pass you anyway,” Reven ordered.

After they were sure that the
shooter was not among them, they continued to the road with Amun now carrying Gibly
while True walked with Jess, chatting the whole way.

There were quite a few more
vehicles on the road when they finally emerged and began to split up into the
vehicles. True helped Jess into one of the vehicles and sat beside her, while
Amun laid Gibly in her lap and took the seat on the other side of her with
Tarvok in the front seat next to one of Banatar’s warriors.

There was little time to talk with
True keeping up a running chatter the whole way. However, they did learn that
the driver's name was Jax, and she had been found by Banatar in an orphanage
when she was only four years old; she’d been with Banatar and his warriors for
thirty years now. And they found out that they were being taken to their main
compound in the area.

The other teams were being taken to
the same compound, but being brought into separate entrances that will be
heavily guarded while they are searched.

True explained that they had a
couple of hundred hybrid women working around the world to help bring down the
Relians and their hold on the planet. Banatar had been saving and training them
since the original outpost crew split up. Some of the girls were found in
orphanages; others rescued from the Relians and a few begging on the streets
alone.

They even had a network of women
working for them that all had unique abilities that made them potential mates
for Valendrans. And they used those abilities to help Banatar and the others.
They had formed a misfit family of sorts, but they were all safe and happy.

“Do you think they would allow me
to run a few tests on them? I’m trying to isolate what makes you so different
from others. If I can figure out what it is I can develop a scan that would
make finding you much easier and might help us understand your gifts better.
What is your gift by the way?” Amun asked curiously.

“You’d have to ask them if they
mind, no one will make them do it. It’s too intrusive. After what some of us
have been through, like Jess, we don’t allow them to be forced into anything
uncomfortable. My gift… is a hungry bitch.” True replied with a mischievous
grin.

Tarvok turned all the way around
from the front seat to watch the two small balls of fire that skittered across
the palms of the female’s hands as if dancing together. He was fascinated as
she made them bigger and smaller by tiny flicks of her fingers; in complete
control of the potentially destructive force. He couldn’t stop his hand as it
reached out to touch one of the little wisps of fire, unbelieving that it was
real.

He snatched his hand back with a
sharp hiss of pain after the heat blistered his fingertips. How could she hold
them like that without burning? He watched her face closely to see if there was
any indication of pain and there wasn’t.

“You’re wondering how huh big guy?
I’m immune to the feel of the flames that I create, but not to any other types
of flame. Kind of sucks huh? To have such a cool gift but feel like it’s only
half a gift? Until Jess made my rings for me, I was just able to start my fire
if my hands were close together. Which is really limiting.” True drew out the
words really for added dramatic effect.

“Now I don’t have to have my hands
anywhere near each other to start it, and I can do both hands at the same time,
which I could never do before. Like I said before, coolest rings ever!”

When she started talking about
something called nail polish and makeup, Amun thought his eyes were going to
bleed from the pounding in his head. He struggled to listen to her chatter,
afraid to miss the important tidbits of information that she passed in the
middle of the unintelligible ones.

Glancing over at Tarvok, he could
see the other man looked just as shell-shocked as he was at the verbal
whirlwind called True; however, Jax looked like she had tuned the other female
out, the moment they’d gotten in the car and appeared unfazed.

They had stopped in front of what
appeared to be a solid rock wall. The only reason any of them even noticed it
was because True had finally stopped speaking, and they were all enjoying the
momentary silence when Jax pulled up to it. If they hadn’t been watching they
would never have noticed the wall open up, bright light streaming through the
opening blinded them for a moment before their eyes finally adjusted.

Jess wasn’t sure if her brain was
numb from True’s friendly chatter, or if the wall of a mountain was really
silently opening in front of them. She saw Tarvok’s raised eyebrow and decided
to assume that she wasn’t seeing things.

“Man, someone must have called
ahead! I was hoping it’d be a surprise. Guess it is for Jess though!” Everyone
but Jax, turned to stare at True like she’d lost her mind when she began
laughing.

Once the wall was opened far enough
for the vehicle to fit through, Jax drove the vehicle inside and parked it.

“Looks like you have some fans waiting
for you honey. If you need anything while you’re here, you come find me. Like
everyone else, I owe you one girl. You saved my best friend. I am so glad you
are finally safe. I’ll see you later.”

That was the longest they had heard
Jax speak at one time, and she looked embarrassed over it. Tarvok and Amun
didn’t miss the sheen of tears in her eyes before she exited the vehicle and
strode quickly through the crowd of women who had suddenly surrounded them.

“What is going on?” Tarvok asked
nervously as he tightened his grip on the pulsar weapon in his lap.

“This is where I told you we were
going. This is one of our main bases on the east coast of the US. It’s an
abandoned missile silo that we bought through a few shell companies and set up
shop.” True answered with a curious tilt of her head, like she thought he was
dense for not listening.

“I meant all the people. We were
cleared of involvement at the scene.” Tarvok said trying not to grit his teeth
in frustration at the female.

“Oh! I thought I told you they
called ahead and said we were coming? They want to see Jess.” True said as if
they should have figured that out on their own.

Jess looked at True in surprise and
worry, while Amun tightened his grip on her hand. Gibly remained unaffected by
everything around him and slept quietly in Jess’s lap while the mediband healed
his broken paw.

“Why are they here for Jess?”
Tarvok didn’t hide his anger this time. He was damn sure he wasn’t letting them
near Jess, females or not.

“Calm down you silly man! Jeez!
Jess, do you even remember how many of us; you helped?” True asked her with
surprise evident in her voice. At the nervous shake of Jess’s head, True
continued.

“There are only hundreds of us
Jess. We all know each other; most of us have grown up together and are family.
You helped save eleven of us, including me. You’re a legend among us, Jess.
There isn’t a person out there that you didn’t save or someone they know and
care about. They want to thank you. And welcome you home.”

True spoke quietly, surprised that
Jess had no idea just how important she was to them. She looked stunned and
speechless. Tarvok and Amun looked at the fidgeting women gathered around the
vehicle with awe and respect. Like a band of true warriors, they were gathered
to welcome back a hero among them.

True opened the door and gently
pulled Gibly from Jess’s lap and into her arms. “Let’s go.”

Tarvok opened his door and stepping
outside; he cautiously stood in front of Amun’s door and waited for him to exit
with Jess. True came to stand beside him.

“Can you do this Amalaya?” Amun
asked Jess. She looked so nervous, her body shaking slightly.

“I don’t know. I didn’t expect
this.” Jess said quietly, looking around at the smiling women outside the
vehicle.

“You’re amazing Jess, and you did
wonderful things. Let them thank you in their own way.”

Jess nodded her head and allowed
Amun to pull her from the vehicle. The eruption of cheers and applause as soon
as the women saw Jess startled them all. Jess shrank back slightly into Amun,
and he held her more tightly against his side.