“No problem—we’re too far out for them to catch us, and we’ll be gone by the time they get here.”
“Okay.” He closed his eyes, though beneath the lids she could see them moving rapidly. After a couple of minutes, he blinked, a frown forming on his features.
“I’m guessing the news isn’t good,” Tannis said.
“I can’t get hold of the colonel—he must be unconscious. I spoke with Tyler. The whole place is in chaos. Shit, you leave them alone for five minutes and—” He broke off and ran a hand through his hair. “Fucking imbeciles.”
“So?” Tannis prompted.
“They’re under siege—pinned down. The Church has a fleet of ships orbiting Trakis Five, and my council is too fucking scared to take the offensive.”
“Sounds like the Church are taking the opportunity to try and get control while you’re off playing,” Rico said.
Callum tossed him a filthy look. “Thanks for that assessment—very insightful. Apparently, according to the Church, we’re all abominations and as such must be eradicated with extreme prejudice. We’re all to burn in the Church’s fires. Me first.”
“Ouch.”
“I told them to wake the fucking colonel up and get someone in charge who has a clue what they’re doing.”
“So we can’t expect any help from your people?”
“Once the colonel is back in charge—maybe. Until then, we’re on our own. And there’s something else.”
“Something not good I presume.”
“They’ve received intel that the Church is on their way to Trakis Seven. They plan to destroy the Meridian stocks.”
“So we need to get there sooner rather than later.”
“Isn’t there a garrison on the station orbiting Trakis Seven?” Skylar asked.
“No, we’ve been pulling people off there. Closing the place down.”
“Why?” Tannis asked.
He glanced around the room, then shrugged again. “I told you. The Meridian is finished—there are no stocks. There’s no point in anyone else being sent there to die for nothing. We’ve searched the entire planet—it’s over. And by the way, we don’t want that information spread around.”
“No,” Rico said. “I can imagine it would severely deplete your influence if that bit of news got out.”
…
Callum slumped low in his chair, his gaze fixed on Tannis. She looked so sexy strapped into that harness. Maybe he’d take her like that one day. Or one night, when they had the bridge to themselves. Again. He was definitely making progress with her. She certainly hadn’t seemed scared. She’d seemed hot and eager and… His cock twitched and his balls ached. Shifting in his chair, he forced himself to look away. Maybe he needed to get his mind on something else. Like the fact that everything was falling apart.
The Collective had ruled for four hundred years. It had taken them nearly a hundred years after the initial discovery to work out what Meridian was doing, to recognize that they weren’t aging, and were almost indestructible. After that, they had worked out a plan, how to best utilize their discovery, and they had quickly grown in wealth and power. But the Collective were still only a relatively small number compared with the overall population.
They had maintained control and kept the warring factions at bay by the promise of Meridian—anyone who went up against the Collective could kiss good-bye to any chance of immortality.
But one day, even if the Church didn’t succeed in their plan, the news would leak out that Meridian was finished. Or someone would realize there were no new members, and come up with the right answer all on their own. Then their tentative hold on that power would be lost.
He couldn’t get worked up about the idea. Mainly because he was fed up with the whole lot of them looking to him to solve their problems. It hadn’t taken him long to realize that while great wealth and power weren’t all that exciting they were hard to walk away from. Now, he’d made the first move, and it felt good. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it was time for him to try something new, and for someone else to take over.
But he didn’t want it to be the goddamn Church.
Money was no problem; he had accounts set up all over the place. He could go anywhere, do anything, maybe spend some time trying to understand what he was and what he would one day become. He stroked a finger along the tip of one wing, where it reached up past his shoulder. Was this as far as the changes went? Or would there be more in the future? What would he be in a thousand years’ time? If Temperance bloody Hatcher and his cohort of zealous fanatics hadn’t cleansed him in their fires by then.