mug in both hands. “But there’s an explanation that you’ll eventually get. Right now, though, I want to know what Luc was doing when you guys left him there.”
Pat turned away from the coffee pot with a mug in his hand. “Cat, don’t bring it up. We feel bad enough about it as it is...”
I looked him straight in the eye. “If I don’t ask, my chances of finding him are slim to none.”
Kiros choked on his coffee, managed to swallow it, and then wheeled on me. “You’re planning to do what?”
I looked at him, meeting his gaze. “I’m going to bring Luc back.”
“That’s putting your entire career at risk.”
“I know,” I said quietly. I glanced at Connor and Maryanne, then looked back at Kiros. “He’s worth vaping my career, though. I know that.”
“Cat, you and Luc never talk,” Kiros’ tone indicated he was trying to verbally sort out exactly what was going on inside my head. “You’re a loner, don’t play well with others. Suddenly you’re ready to back to that damned place to rescue a man you barely know? It doesn’t make sense.”
Maryanne looked at him. “Kir, it makes sense when you have all the pieces of the puzzle. I’m sure. I know it must.”
I nodded slowly. Thanks, Maryanne. “I suppose I should explain...and I will as long as you tell me what Luc was doing.”
Connor shook his head slowly. “He doesn’t have to, because I know, and I’m going with you.”
“And what he forgets, I’ll remember.” Maryanne smiled at me bravely.
It was almost enough to make me start tearing up again. Thanks, guys. “Well, I guess that solves that. If you decide you don’t want our careers vaped, Major, all it takes are orders penned by you after we’re gone.” I stood up to get rid of my cup of coffee when he held up a hand to stop me.
“Sit back down, Captain. You owe me, at least, an explanation. I’m sure the rest of us would like to hear why and since when the three of you are conspiring with each other, too. Connor and Maryanne I’d expect to conspire together, but nothing like this and certainly not with you.”
I had to smile--at least a little--at that. “Fair enough--I suppose a story is a fair trade for orders being cut.” My smile faded as I raked my hand back through my hair and leaned against the bunks. “When I defected from E-Fed to the Alliance, I became someone I wasn’t. If you try to back-check the names of the people I listed as my parents, you’ll find that there isn’t a record for them. That’s because they don’t exist. You see, I wasn’t born Catherine Anders.” I glanced at Connor, then looked back to Kiros. “I was born Catherine Davies.”
Connor spoke up then. “Cat was engaged to my best friend, six years ago. His name was Anders--that’s where her current name comes from.”
I nodded. “I took his name when I defected--fresh start, y’know?” I took a gulp of my coffee. It was becoming lukewarm now, or at least it wasn’t as hot as I liked it. “When I defected, I walked away from another life, one I thought was over. I found out, when I joined this unit, that the life I walked away from hadn’t ended like I thought it had. I discovered that I still had living family--something I thought I’d lost forever.”
Kiros frowned. “So what are you two saying? You’re obviously on the same page, you and Con, but I’ll be damned if I can figure you two out.”
Connor lifted his head. “Kir, Cat’s my twin sister. That plain enough for you?”
“So how does Luc figure into all of this?”
My throat swelled suddenly, the hurt starting to rise again. I can’t have lost him again. I couldn’t bring myself to speak. God, not again. I can’t lose him again. Not this time. In the end, I didn’t have to.
“The man we know as Captain Lucian Davies is her fiancée,” Maryanne said quietly. “Luc’s real name is Lucian Anders. He has a younger sister on Zephyr, in school. He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know any of it.”
Kiros looked from me to Connor to Maryanne, then went through each of us again. “You know, Maryanne?”
She nodded slowly. “They told me a few weeks ago, at least some of it. The rest I figured out on my own.”
“Luc has some pretty serious amnesia.” Connor’s voice was barely louder than a whisper. “Anything that happened before he woke up after the head injury noted in his file might as well have never happened for him.” He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment before looking up at Kiros. “So far as he knows, I’m all he’s got in the world. He doesn’t know that I’m not his brother, he doesn’t know that Sabrina Anders is his sister, and he doesn’t know that Cat is his fiancée.”
Kiros looked between us again. “So why didn’t you say something, Captain?”
God, he’d have to ask that question. “Let’s just say that my way of coping with the pain was to forget.” I wiped away the tears that had started to roll down my cheeks. “But I’m sick of being alone, now, so it’s time for me to suck it up and deal. I can’t do that, though, without him. Is that explanation enough for you, Major, or do I have to go through the entire life story? I’d really rather not.”
He shook his head. “Get out of here. Bring him home.”
I nodded grimly. “That’s what I intend to do.” That’s what I intend to do--and I’ll do it or die trying.
7
The sun was setting on Demar as Connor, Maryanne, and I looked down at the camp the E-Fed forces on the world had set up. I smiled grimly. They haven’t changed anything. Maybe we can actually pull this off without one of us getting killed. I glanced at Connor. “All you have to do is make sure that no one has the chance to sound an alarm if we miss them. You can do that, right?”
He smiled at me, matching the grimness of my own grin. “Are you kidding me? Hell yeah, I can do that. Daylight, full dark, doesn’t matter. I can do it. Especially when it counts.”
I nodded, then looked at Maryanne. “You ready? By the time we get down there and in position, it’ll be dark enough to make the strike.”
“Roger that. Let’s get going.” She looked at Connor, who smiled a little more at her and drew her against him in a tight hug.
“Be careful,” he whispered.
“I will be,” she whispered back, then kissed him. “We both will be, and we’ll bring him back.”
He nodded, then looked at me. “Good luck.”
We’ll need it. I tossed him a jaunty salute and a wry grin before I double-checked my gear and started out. Maryanne was close behind me. We’d decided to strike at night, when most of the camp would be drunk with their success at capturing Lucian. We’d managed to figure out using sensors from the dropship where Lucian was located in the camp, which made the job Maryanne and I had to do that much easier. While Connor covered us from on top of a rise with his sniper rifle, Maryanne and I would infiltrate the camp, grab Luc, and get the hell out of Dodge. At least, we hoped it would be that simple. If it wasn’t, she and I were both armed to the teeth, carrying guns, knives, and explosives. We hoped it wouldn’t be too rough, though, and if we managed to do things right, it would be a fairly simple run. We only had one shot at it, though, and both of us knew that. That increased the pressure on us tenfold. As if the pressure wasn’t bad enough already.
Maryanne and I carefully made our way down from the rise where Connor had stationed himself, guarding the approach to the shuttle as well as covering us from above. We circled the camp, making our way to the far end of it, where the sensor sweeps had told us Lucian was being held.
We had to slit three throats before we got to Lucian. I don’t regret it. It was something that had to be done--it was something we had to do. And damn, they deserved it, for everything they’d done...for everything E-Fed had done.
To this day, when I close my eyes, I can see him the way we found him, on the edge of that camp. His wrists had been secured to a heavy metal rod that was obviously very hard for him to hold up, even as strong as he was. The
rod itself was secured with a chain at either end to the top of a pole, driven deep into the ground. The rod hung at a level that forced Lucian to keep standing, but did not ease the pressure the rod placed on his shoulders and neck. It was obvious when we got there that he’d been beaten, and blood had soaked through a bandage wrapped around his abdomen, the wound on the left side. He didn’t look good at all.
I had to bite back tears and fight to focus so I could cover Maryanne as she worked Lucian loose from his bonds. I could hear her cursing almost silently as she fought a battle with his bonds. “No good!” She hissed at me. “I need your help. Come over here, hold him.”
I swallowed, holstered my gun, and nodded, moving over to hold him up while she worked his wrists loose of the bindings that held them to the rod. Once she got one loose, she looped his arm over my shoulder. His wrist was bloody and raw from the binding. Oh God. Luc... He didn’t make a sound as Maryanne got his other wrist loose. She looped his other arm around my other shoulder and took out her gun as I lifted him. I cursed in a whisper. “Damn, he’s heavy.”
Maryanne looked around. “C’mon, let’s get out of here before they realize we’ve taken out three of their people and kidnapped their prisoner.”
I nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me.” I carried Luc back up into the hills, Maryanne covering me. We took a longer way around going back to the