Page 3 of Enslak

My mate wasn't involved in intelligence operations, but she was known to be brave, loyal, tenacious, a handful. I couldn't disagree with his assessment, much as I wanted to.

Nansar leaned forward, his expression turning serious. "I should add that Chloe was instrumental in our escape from Palaydium. Without her quick thinking and courage under fire, I'd be dead right now. She proved herself when it mattered most, in conditions far worse than most trained operatives ever face. If she vouches for this detective, that carries real weight."

I looked around the table. The same conviction showed on every face. Even Duke Ako was nodding slowly. I'd always considered him level-headed.

My mind raced through the tactical considerations, the mission parameters, the risks. A human operative would be untested in Asad operations, unfamiliar with our technology and protocols.

But she'd also be unexpected.

And if the size match was perfect, if the cuddwisg distortion was minimal, Binwee would be there to guide her.

"One mission," I heard myself say. "One human operative. If this works, if she successfully extracts Enslak, then I'll reconsider expanding recruitment to include qualified human females in Asad Intelligence."

Chloe's face lit up with triumph. "You won't regret this."

I already regretted it.

But as I looked at the Prime's face and saw the desperate hope there, I knew I would've agreed to far worse odds for even a chance at bringing her son home.

Chapter 1

Niki

I died in Hell's Kitchen on a Tuesday.

Or I thought I was dying. Hard to tell when you're flat on your back in a rain-slicked alley, blood spreading warm beneath you, the city sounds fading to white noise. Castillo, a low-level dealer and high-level asshole, had already disappeared into the fire escapes. My partner's voice crackled through the radio, frantic, calling for backup and a bus. But he sounded like he was underwater, miles away.

The pain hit in waves, white-hot through my gut, every breath like swallowing glass. I'd been grazed before, nothing serious, but this was different. This was the kind of wound that killed you if the ambulance didn't show up in the next five minutes.

The ambulance wasn't going to show up in five minutes.

I stared up at that narrow strip of gray sky between the buildings and watched the rain fall. Each drop seemed to take forever to reach my face. I thought about Danny. Wondered if this was what it had been like for him when the Jade Dragons cornered him outside that bodega in Chinatown.

Had he been scared?

Had he thought about Mom and Dad? About me?

He'd been twenty-three. I was nineteen, still in college, still thinking I'd become a social worker or maybe a teacher. His death changed everything, changed me. I dropped out, applied to the academy, and spent the next fifteen years trying to make the streets safer. Trying to save everyone else's little brother so no other kid sister would have to hold her brother's hand as he died.

Fat lot of good it did.

Here I was, bleeding out in an alley that looked exactly like the one where Danny died.

Then the light came.

Brilliant. Blinding. So bright I couldn't look directly at it even though my eyes were already closing. I thought it was the tunnel everyone talks about, the one you're supposed to walk toward when you die. Some part of me, the part that still remembered going to Mass with my grandmother, wondered if I'd see Danny on the other side.

Instead, I woke up in hell.

Not the fire-and-brimstone kind.

The alien abduction kind.

The Trogvyk ship was a nightmare of metal and screaming. I wasn't alone. There were dozens of us crammed into holding cells that reeked of fear and waste. Most were human, but I spotted other species too, things I didn't have names for. The Trogvyk themselves were massive, ugly creatures that looked like hairless cats, if cats stood seven feet tall and wanted to eat you.

They'd healed my gunshot wound.

Not out of kindness. I learned that fast enough. Healthy merchandise fetched better prices at whatever hellish market we were heading toward.