“Are you Hector?”
“I’m the Resistance leader now,” he said without answering her question directly. “You abandoned us.” The venom in that tone had to come from personal betrayal. Nothing else made sense. A stranger shouldn’t be so hostile toward her.
And yet, she still couldn’t place his voice.
“Who are you?” she tried again, holding her arms up over her head to let them know that she posed them no threat.
At first she didn’t think she’d get an answer.
Then, out of the darkness emerged the last person she’d ever expected to see again.
Pip.
For a full minute, her emotions paralyzed her. Shock. Anger. And a hatred so bitter, she could taste it. She wanted to claw his eyes out over what he’d put Darling through.
But all that being said, he looked like someone had already tried to kill him.
No. Rather he looked like they’d succeeded.
A vicious scar ran over his left cheekbone and the jagged, horrific one across his throat must be why his voice sounded the way it did. It appeared Darling had stabbed him right below the Adam’s apple, then ripped the knife across his entire neck. How Pip had survived such a savage attack, she couldn’t imagine.
Had she not seen what he’d done to Darling, she’d feel sorry for him. But there was nothing inside her except contempt. “Why are you calling yourself Hector?”
He narrowed his eyes on her. “It’s my real name. But you never bothered to learn that, did you? No. I was too far beneath you for you to notice me.”
Now that really made her mad. While she lacked Darling’s impressive recall with people’s names and background, it didn’t mean she didn’t care. “That’s not true. I never treated you that way. Ever.”
“Didn’t you? Clarion told me how you reamed him for taking the royal prick prisoner. You were siding with them from the very beginning. First chance you had, you went running right back to your inheritance, didn’t you, Princess? Once an aristo, always an aristo. None of you care about anyone but yourselves.” He gestured at his face. “Look what the bastard did to me!”
Zarya had to struggle to keep herself calm, but it wasn’t easy. Not when she really wanted to gut him where he stood. Lowering her hands very slowly, she took a second to turn on the tricom… just in case Pip was as insane as she thought him to be. “What happened to you is awful. I admit that. But what was done to Darling—”
“Look at the way you use his name,” he sneered at the others who were still hidden by their cover. “You sicken me, you sorry fag whore!”
Oh that was it! How dare an animal like him judge her. “Then we’re even, Pip. The sight of you makes my skin crawl and it has nothing to do with your scars or your classification. You make a mockery of the uniform you wear. You’re the one who doesn’t believe in our cause. Instead, you use our colors so that you can practice your depravity under the guise of being normal when you’re not. No human being could do to another what you did to Darling.”
With a cry of outrage, he leveled his blaster at her. “That’s it, bitch. You’re dead.” He pulled the trigger.
The blast headed straight for her. Out of reflex, she jerked her hands up and cringed in expectation of being blasted. But just as it would have struck her, it hit the tricom’s force field. The shot broke apart and rebounded through the hallway, seeking out all the men in hiding.
It caught Pip straight in the chest and sent him flying into the wall behind him.
Whoa…
No wonder Darling had been so pissed off about his attack. It looked extremely painful to be hit by whatever it was the tricom generated.
Yet none of her soldiers moved or cried out. They were absolutely frozen.
“What did you do to them?” Ture asked in an awed tone.
“I didn’t. It’s a device that was made for me.” How fitting that it would be used against the ones who’d trapped Darling with it.
Ture let out a low whistle. “Well color me impressed, and please, don’t ever use that device against me. I’ll be a good boy, I promise.”
Not even Ture’s attempt at humor could quell her anger. Rather it mounted with every step she took closer to Pip and the others. They lay on the ground, eyes open. The only clue she had that they were still alive was the faint rise and fall of their chests as they breathed.
That made her think of Darling lying like that on the ground and what Pip and the others had done to him while he’d been helpless against them…