Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (14 page)

* * * *

Vin feigned unconsciousness and watched
Emma from beneath his lashes. She glanced at him now and then, but
mostly she concentrated on his artificial intelligence device. Her
mouth turned down as if reading something unpleasant.

He drifted to sleep and each time Emma
moved he woke up. Numerous parts of his body hurt, but something,
perhaps drugs, softened the pain. Probably why he sank into sleep …
and then woke up when she walked toward him. The soft light from
the ceiling lamp gleamed on a vial in her hand. She lifted it
toward the intravenous bag hanging above his shoulder. He snagged
her hand as she reached up.

Emma gasped and the vial clattered to
the floor. A smile curved her lips. “By the strength of your grip,
I guess you’re feeling better.” She twisted her hand so the tiny
bones of her wrist turned beneath his hand.

Vin released her, not sure if she meant
he held her too tight or if she only commented on his health. Pain
spiked outward from so many places on his torso, he couldn’t
differentiate how many wounds he’d sustained. “I’m
awake.”

Emma’s smile broadened. “So you don’t
feel better?”

“
I feel worse than I did
when I walked out on the street today.” Vin noted that no sun light
filtered in through the small windows in the front of the room. “Is
it still the same day?”

She bent down and picked up the vial.
“It’s nearly the next day. You lost so much blood I wasn’t sure you
would ever wake up. I used up all my stores on you and stole from
your supply. It’s time for a dose of pain meds so you can rest and
get your strength back.”

“
Is it stealing if you
told me you took it?” Vin glanced at the AI computer.

Emma’s face darkened. Anger or
embarrassment? “I saw your computer when I went for medicine in
your room. We’re pretty isolated from the rest of mankind here, and
I wondered what might be happening out there. I should have asked
first but you weren’t saying much.”

Her answer made sense even to his drug
befuddled mind, but he’d discovered in his travels that most
civilians didn’t care about what happened in the wider universe
unless it touched their own settlements. The likelihood of her
using the computer to discover his secret seemed unlikely. He’d
melded so smoothly into Hovel Port, hiding his discomfort and
differences without giving away his identity. “No one else was hurt
by the drones?”

Emma set her hand on his bare shoulder,
and Vin suddenly realized he was completely unclothed beneath the
thin blanket. “You saved all those children, Vin. Everyone is
grateful beyond their ability to express. Vannie sat outside all
day to give reports on your condition as everyone in town stopped
by at least once.”

Vin started to sit up, but Emma’s small
hand held more strength than he’d expected. His weakened condition
couldn’t overcome her insistence he stay prone.

“
Lay still or you’ll open
those wounds. At the least you’ll pass out.”

Vin sighed and relaxed back. Skin and
muscle protested his attempt, shrieking in quiet agony. He wouldn’t
pass out but a few more hours of recovery might improve his body’s
status tenfold. “You must tell everyone to stay off the streets.
There could be more drones.”

“
I’ll have Vannie and Moe
spread the word, but it’s rain day so not many people are out
except to check on you. Perhaps the weather will keep the drones
grounded too.”

“
They work on heat
signatures and simple laser avoidance systems. They can operate in
anything. People should stay away from their windows too. Regular
glass won’t hide living things from their scanners.”

Emma’s face paled, amazing Vin with the
range of emotions her beautiful face revealed. If only he could
interpret them.

“
You mean those machines
targeted the children on purpose?” she whispered.

“
They targeted anything
warm that was outside. I don’t see why they would specifically try
to kill children. It would serve no strategic purpose in weakening
your settlement.”

“
No purpose!”

Vin analyzed what he’d said, wondering
what had caused her fierce reaction. Had he revealed too much
military knowledge? “It would make more sense to kill men like the
traps in the river intended.”

Emma took a deep breath and then spoke
in a slow, tight manner. “Vin, killing the children would weaken
Hovel Port by taking away the hearts of the adults. It takes away
any reason to fight. The people here with children are trying to
build a future for them. Without their children, they wouldn’t care
about a future.”

Understanding swamped Vin. For a very
short time, he’d planned a future with Yalo and their child. The
tiny being in her womb had represented everything he’d ever dreamed
of, love, a home, and a real life free of war and killing. Then
they’d been taken away from him. “Losing their children would leave
vengeance as a reason to go on.”

Emma carried the vial back to the
cupboard. She kept her back to him as she spoke. “Not everyone is
the kind of person who overcomes tragedy by seeking revenge. And
most people who satisfy their need for vengeance find their lives
as empty as the first moment of their loss. Revenge helps no
one.”

“
It stops people from
hurting anyone else.” Vin already knew vengeance wouldn’t fill the
hollow spot inside him.

She turned back to him and nodded.
“Some people do need to be stopped. I’ll go tell Moe to spread the
word about staying off the streets. Maybe everyone should stay home
tomorrow after the rain stops.”

Vin closed his eyes and tried to rest
after Emma left. Usually he could sleep whenever the need arose.
But between the pain spiraling higher and higher and his need to
figure out Emma’s words, sleep eluded him. He pushed with his arms
and managed to sit up and swing his legs over the side of the
raised bed.

Everything hurt between his neck and
his waist. Thick dressings covered his entire torso. Luckily the
drones carried only small rounds. A larger caliber would have blown
him to bits.

He grunted to suppress a cry as he set
his feet on the cold wooden floor. He tugged the blanket off the
bed and wrapped it around his waist, tying up the corners so it
wouldn’t trip him. Sweat beaded on his skin. By the time he reached
the door, perspiration ran from under his hair and down his neck.
The few steps outside in the damp air to the door of his shop felt
like a mile uphill. Not even the cold wind blowing with the rain
could cool his straining body. He paused a moment to check the
street, listening for drones and the movement of people. Quiet
except for the patter of the diminishing rain and the hiss of water
striking and running off roofs and trees.

His shop stood dark but welcoming with
its solitude and orderliness. Irregular crumbled shapes covered his
work tables. The crashed drones. He could backtrack their flight
plans though there seemed only one possible origin. Someone at the
Hadrason Mining complex had to have sent the drones though Vin
still couldn’t figure out why the commercial monster cared about
Hovel Port.

Vin’s body yearned for rest and relief
from the pain, but his mind conjured images of the children of
Hovel Port being struck by the bullets instead of him. Even one of
the high velocity rounds might have been lethal for their tiny,
soft bodies. He went to the first drone and switched on the
overhead lamp he’d fixed days ago. Whoever had sent the weapon
would answer for waging war on children.

* * * *

Emma found him sitting on a high stool
and leaning over the remains of a drone. The white bandages on his
torso and the blanket around his hips set off his bronzed skin and
lean physique. The bright light shining on his bent head caused his
dark hair to gleam. Just as she opened her mouth to lecture him, he
spoke.

“
I need my AI
unit.”

“
AI?”

“
The device you borrowed
from me isn’t a simple computer. It’s the latest artificial
intelligence techno tablet. Could you return it to me?” His face
appeared gaunt beneath the unforgiving light, and lines of pain
bracketed his mouth.

“
You need to be in bed.”
But when Emma started toward him, he held up his hand.

“
I need my AI. Please get
it for me.”

Emma hesitated while he stared at her
with a calmness that didn’t hide the steel keeping him upright. She
hurried to her surgery and grabbed the device, cradling it to
protect it from the rain. AI devices cost a small fortune. She’d
thought it a simple computer. Hopefully Vin wouldn’t check her
activities on it.

Vin took it from her without a word and
opened a port on the side of it.

She walked around him, checking the
integrity of the bandages while watching his stiff movements. He
reached into the wreckage of the drone and tugged out a wire with a
connector on the end. He stuck it into the port, and the screen of
the AI lit up.

Vin touched the screen here and there,
his fingers moving rapidly from one command to another. Emma looked
over his shoulder. The first thing that came up showed a
topographical map between Hadrason Mining and Hovel Port. Vin taped
something and a jagged line appeared connecting the two.

He pointed to the line. “This is the
route programmed into the drone.” He touched it again, and a line
of code popped up beside the route. “These are the instructions on
the command chip. This is an old-fashioned man hunter drone, used
to fight pirates on hostile planets. This code instructed the
machine to detect animal heat sources within the borders of Hovel
Port and shoot them.”

“
Those
bastards!”

Vin raised an eyebrow but continued to
search the memory of the drone. “I might be able to use the AI to
research the sale of these drones. The military keeps track of
them, but they’re not supposed to be in the possession of civilians
so they’re probably stolen or were purchased on the black
market.”

Emma watched Vin now instead of the
screen. How could they have thought he was brain damaged? When he
worked at things he was comfortable with, his intelligence was as
obvious as his male beauty.

“
Hell.” Vin’s soft curse
called her attention back to the screen. A video rolled, showing
the Hovel Port’s fence and then the street as the drone tore down
it.

Emma gasped as the drone focused on the
children. Then she and Vin arrived in the street, the quality
camera capturing their likenesses in full focus. The video took a
sharp turn down and the image was the street rushing toward it as
it crashed.

Awe grew in Emma after seeing how fast
the drones had moved. Reading about Vin’s abilities and actually
seeing him in action were two entirely different things. When the
attack happened, she’d been too terrified to appreciate the near
impossibility of his marksmanship.

“
The video feed went back
to the person who’d programmed the drones.” Vin touched the screen,
bringing up the route and map again. He manipulated the picture,
enlarging it until the origin came into view. A tall building
filled the screen filled the screen. “And that’s where the video
feed went to.”

“
Hell.” Emma repeated
Vin’s earlier curse. “Someone saw us both.”

Vin’s fingers flew across the screen. A
list scrolled down the device, an accounting of the research on Vin
Emma had done while he slept. He looked at her, wincing a bit as he
twisted to face her. “I guess we both know why I don’t want anyone
to have me on video. Why do you care if someone saw
you?”

Emma looked into his clear gray eyes
and thought about him putting his body between bullets and a small
child. “I’m hiding out.”

Vin raised an eyebrow and
waited.

“
My stepfather is looking
for me, and I don’t want to be found.” Though that was no longer
quite true.

Vin turned back to the AI and brought
up a picture. “Your father, Admiral Ben Lester.”

“
Stepfather,” she
corrected him, moving up to lean on the table beside him so she
could see his face.

Vin gave her one of his confused looks.
“What is a step? I’ve heard this about your father before? Is it an
ethnic identifier?”

Emma bit her lip but managed not to
smile. “He’s my stepfather because he married my mother. My real
father died when I was a child and a few years later my mother
married the admiral.” She waited while Vin turned the information
about in his convoluted brain.

“
Stepfather as in a bit
removed from the role of father.”

“
Yes.” His insightful
description amazed Emma.

“
So he took your father’s
place?”

“
Not to me and only for a
little while for my mother until she figured out what type of man
he is.”

“
So you have no blood in
common with Lester?”

“
No blood and nothing
else. I despise him. So now you know about me, Recon Marine. Did
you come here for me?”

Vin tapped the picture on the AI
screen. “I came here for him.”