Biting her lip, she debated the sanity of doing this… again. The last few days had been agonizing as she went back and forth on whether or not she should even think about attempting to contact her soldiers who seemed hell-bent on ending their world.
Talk about insanity… Whoever their new leader was, he wasn’t thinking clearly. And he definitely hadn’t considered the repercussions for his actions.
You can’t run now, Z. You’re doing this for Darling.
She couldn’t let herself forget that.
Please, let this work. She didn’t know of another way out.
With a breath for courage, she led Ture away from the restaurant’s ruins and down three blocks until she reached the “secret” entrance for the Resistance offices. To an outside observer, it appeared to be a law office. And there were actually lawyers who subleased offices from them. But if you went to the back lifts from the street level, and punched in the right code, it would take you deep into the basement where they worked.
As they entered the building, she had no idea how far they’d get before Resistance security stopped them. But she was going to try.
For once though, there was no security on the door. How weird…
She didn’t stop until she reached the lifts. Then, to her complete shock, the control panel accepted her old access code and handprint.
This can’t be good…
Why wouldn’t they have changed it?
Nervous, she reached down to touch the new tricom Darling had given her to keep her safe while all hell broke loose around them.
His ultimate sign of trust, and one that had let her know he’d meant what he said about not holding the past against her anymore.
Ture leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Should you be able to get in?”
“No,” she whispered back, trying not to be too rude. It was sad when a civ knew more about military protocol than the current Resistance leader. “Whoever Hector is, he’s an idiot.”
For one thing, especially if they really thought she was being held against her will and tortured, their offices should have been moved. That would have been her first action after they were attacked by the Sentella. Then all of her codes should have been blocked, not just her online access.
Who would have ever thought she’d be grateful for stupid?
The doors opened to a hallway that was even more familiar to her than the one in her apartment flat.
A weird feeling tickled her stomach as she stepped out and glanced around. This building… this light gray hall had once been her home. In fact, she’d spent most of the last eight years right here. Night and day. This had been her life.
She’d never thought to leave it.
And as she stood there, ghosts from her past haunted her. She heard the voices of her dead friends. Saw images of Darling dressed in the full black battle gear of Kere, walking by her side as they discussed how best to irritate his uncle.
It was just down the hall from here that he’d first made love to her…
Gods, how she missed him.
But the one memory that burned brightest and hardest was the one of Darling being dragged away from the hangar…
In that moment, she felt like a stranger here. Like she didn’t belong anymore.
She was no longer the woman who’d been so determined to bring down the Cruel family. Yes, she still wanted to save and protect her people. She still wanted them to be free of those who would exploit or harm them.
But now she knew that the best way to achieve that would be with Darling as their governor.
Ture placed his hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
Not really. But she didn’t want him to know that. “Yeah. I’m just a little concerned that we’ve made it this far and no one’s greeted us. We should have been swarmed the moment we came in.”
No sooner had the words left her lips than a shout rang out, followed by a red-tinged blast that narrowly missed her face.
“Stop!”
She froze instantly and held her hands out so that the man could see she wasn’t a threat. Ture followed suit.
“Put your weapons down!”
Zarya smiled as she finally recognized the angry voice snarling orders at her. “Ferin? Is that you?”
He hesitated before he answered. “Zarya?”
“Yeah. It’s me.”
Still he didn’t come out from his cover. “What are you doing here? And who is that with you?”
“It’s Ture. A friend of mine. And I thought you guys wanted me back. Was I wrong?”
“You can’t trust her. She’s been brainwashed by our enemies.”
She didn’t recognize the second man’s voice. It was a deep, guttural tone—the accent native to the western part of the empire. Was he the mysterious Hector?
“No one’s brainwashed me.” She took a step forward.
Another blast came within inches of her face.
She stopped moving instantly, but what her attacker didn’t know was that his shots weren’t scaring her. They were pissing her off.
“You shoot to kill. Not to warn.” Her father’s voice was loud and clear in her head. But today, she couldn’t listen to him. Instead, she had a psycho to disarm.