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Viktis winced. “That’s a low blow, love. You know I only did it because of the job. It wasn’t personal.”
She shook her head. “I knew it was only a matter of time before you turned on me, but I’d hoped it wouldn’t happen. How could we trust each other when we were both for sale? It could have as easily been the other way around. You’re still the son of the most respected president in Ileth history. You could be the poster child for the next rebellion. Hell, President Viktis has a pretty nice ring to it. I’m surprised someone hasn’t taken out a contract on your head yet.”
“Who says they haven’t?”
“Well, no one asked me. I would have taken the job in a heartbeat a few years ago.” She sighed and shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. I’m here now. With a job to do. One way or another.”
“There are worse places to be,” he said with a smile.
Renna reached over and squeezed his hand. “I know. I’m not sure how I got so lucky.” Finn’s betrayal had destroyed her chance at having a life, a family. She’d hold on to what she had left with her last breath.
“You haven’t yet,” he said with a nod toward her tablet. “Now how about you stop getting all sappy on me and get back to that intel. We still have an evil doctor to catch.”
“Don’t forget about Major Larson. He’s just as big a threat. How long has he been working for her? What’s his game?”
“Dr. Samil is a beautiful woman. Does he need any other game?” Viktis asked.
“Maybe not, but that feels a little too convenient. I wish Kara had been able to uncover something else on him.” Renna grimaced at her tablet, rereading the same info she’d found on the MYTH computers.
“What about this?” Viktis held up another holodisk.
“Let’s try it.” Renna slipped it into her tablet. “Looks like some sort of audio file.” She clicked play and turned the volume up on her speakers.
Dr. Samil’s voice filled the room. “Report indicates success with thirty milliliters of solution, along with electrotherapy for the first stage of development. We’ll be proceeding as planned.”
A deeper man’s voice answered her. “Which facility would you like to send the test subjects to?”
“Shalim,” Samil answered.
Renna froze. That wasn’t possible.
“I’ll have them picked up immediately.”
“Good. And Larson? Make sure no one sees you this time. We can’t afford mistakes.”
Renna’s hands trembled so badly the tablet clattered on the table as she tried to set it down.
“What is it?” Viktis asked, half-rising from his chair.
Renna shook her head. “Shalim is on Antibes Prime. That’s where I joined Blur’s gang. Where I met Finn.” The place where she thought he’d been killed.
His eyes widened.
“Impossible,” she whispered. “The whole planet was almost abandoned after the Koschei Corporation pulled out five years ago. There’s nothing left but a starving population who couldn’t afford to leave and mile after mile of empty buildings. As far as I know, Blur’s warehouse has been sitting empty since MYTH raided it.”
“What better place for Samil to hide then?”
“But why there?” Renna wrapped her arms tightly around her waist. “Why that particular warehouse?
“Do you really need to ask that? Because of you. She knew you’d be unable to stay away.”
Renna gazed out into space, her voice flat. “She was right.”
TWENTY-NINE
Viktis ordered her to get some sleep before they landed on Antibes Prime, and Renna didn’t argue. Her whole body ached, and that strange throbbing in her brain had started up again. Her tiny little pod looked pretty damn good as she slid into it.
She was asleep as soon as she put her head to her pillow, but that didn’t mean she dreamed easy.
Images of Blur’s warehouse as it used to look filled her mind. Shadowy, rundown, faded paint on the walls and broken windows high up letting in the gray sunlight. The burnt-sugar smell of clay and the constant acrid stench from the dying factories at the edge of the city.
But the screams were different. Screams that echoed through the space and made the hair on her arms rise. Renna tossed and turned, trying to block them out, but they only faded slightly.
She walked slowly through the warehouse, headed for Blur’s old office. The high ceilings were bathed in shadows, but the floors bore the rusty stains of torture and pain. Renna tried to breathe through her mouth, but the scent of death still reached her.
Relief flooded through her as she made it through the warehouse gauntlet, but as she rounded the corner, she stopped dead.
Blur, her murdered mentor, barred the way. The lower part of his face had been ripped away, his jaw and part of his skull replaced by shiny new metal and synthetic skin. His eyes glowed red, just like the hybrids back in Navang’s facility, and his arms were strong and deadly, the metal glinting in the light. Robot arms now, not human.
“You did this to me, Renna,” he whispered. “And now I’m going to do the same to you.”
He reached out with one of his robotic hands and closed it around her throat. The cold metal of his fingers burned into her skin as they tightened slowly around her windpipe.
She gasped for breath, thrashing against him helplessly.
With a hoarse scream, she woke up, tangled in the blankets. She stared up at the ceiling of her pod, sucking in air. Dear gods, what the hell was wrong with her? She hadn’t had a nightmare like that in years.
Renna wiped the cold sweat from her palms. She’d give anything for a stiff drink right now, but getting up meant Viktis would see her freaking out, and having him hovering over her like a nursemaid wasn’t how she wanted to spend the rest of the night.
If she was going to have a long night, she’d rather be back on the Athena. In Finn’s arms.
She growled low in her throat. Damn her for still wanting him after this. Renna squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block out his face by concentrating on the Athena. She tried to focus on how it flew, the way she felt when she’d controlled it. It had felt like coming home. Like she’d always been a part of it.
A hum began to build in her head, but she ignored it. Instead she focused on inhaling and exhaling regularly, trying to get her pulse under control. The meditation technique started to work, and she felt herself finally slipping back into relaxation.
