Chapter 22

Sneaking into the elite building was easier than it should have been. In fact, she didn't sneak at all, she strode toward the door and the guard there as if she had every right to enter. Fortunately for her, it was not a man she recognized, or that recognized her. When he raised a hand and opened his mouth to stop her, she held up the armor.

“Just returning this, as I was told. Draven doesn't want to be without it.”

All true things.

The guard floundered for a moment, but she had already worked her way past him and into the building. She slid the door shut behind her and waited, giddy with the fact that her plan had actually worked. When several seconds passed and no one burst through the door to throw her back out, Mia crept down the hall. They were gathered in the sitting room, as she had guessed, and she paused, assessing the area. There were no great places to hide, but a large column just past the doorway would partially hide her. It was better than standing out in the open, anyway. Besides, she would just listen closely and be a distance down the hall before anyone saw her. She could use the excuse of returning the armor to explain her presence; she knew where it belonged, after all.

She crept closer to the sitting room.

“It is impossible to plan unless we know exactly what we're dealing with,” someone said.

“We've got to come up with something. Those bastards have been in our city, the palace orchard isn't far enough from the compound to pretend they don't know we exist.”

That was Kenahi, and Mia's interest perked exponentially. They weren't talking about predators, unless this planet had some form of beast with human-like intelligence. She paused as the conversation lulled and waited. She needed to cross the opening, but the risk of being seen had frozen her in place.

“What I meant is we need to know how many. Are we facing a troupe? Or is there an entire legion out there waiting to pick us off?”

“What I find most concerning is that, after ten years, signs of their existence have appeared now.” That was Draven. She imagined the frown on his handsome face as he spoke.

Ok. She needed to treat this little dash the same as she had treated her approach to the door. Sneaking or running across would draw unnecessary attention, so she was just going to walk past the door and hope they were too distracted to notice. They were definitely speaking of something of significance. Mia guessed that those tracks they had found in the orchard belonged to their once enemies. The ones that they had assumed died with the rest of the population. The ones that had released the bio-weapon that had decimated the world.

“The women, they know we have them” one of the men grumbled.

Her heart pounding against her ribs, she stepped out, crossing the opening in a matter of seconds. She listened for sound of protest, or any other sign she had been discovered. When none came, she sighed with relief and slipped behind the pillar, where her gut twisted for an entirely different reason.

“It seems that way,” Draven confirmed. “I don't know whether to think of it as a good sign or not.”

“Why would that be good?”

“If they are interested in our women, it means they are in the same situation we are, left alone without other survivors. They haven't had a decade to rebuild their population,” Kenahi answered.

“That, and they'll be hesitant to destroy the compound, should they somehow still have the technology to do so,” Draven confirmed. “That will buy us time to investigate, but we will have to keep a closer eye on the women. We made the choice to bring them here, they must be protected at all costs. The compound is on lock down, no more free roaming, from now on they must be monitored and with a guard at all times.”

“Even your Mia?”

Mia's stomach flipped. What the heck were they talking about…his Mia? Bah.

Draven made a growling noise. “Especially her. I should have never risked the city. It was a foolish move, one that might have cost us greatly if the enemy had timed themselves slightly differently.”

“She isn't going to like that much, none of them will, I'd wager.”

“It will set us back, a few of the women have begun to thaw toward us. That will end when we remind them of their captivity.”

“It cannot be helped,” Draven sighed.

“Maybe we should tell them why. If they knew the cause, they might more compliant.” Surprisingly, that sounded like Gorth. She hadn't pegged him as having much sympathy for the women.

She nodded to herself. Yes, they should tell the women. At the very least, everyone had the right to know what to expect.

“And cause a panic? Telling them that they're unsafe isn't going to endear them to us, either.”

She rubbed at her eyes in frustration. Obviously, these men had little experience with the female gender, maybe that's what made them such idiots. You couldn't start a relationship with mistrust, it was best to be open from the start.

“Draven?”

“Keep it quiet for now. When we know the scope of the problem, we will present it to the women. There is no point causing unnecessary fear for them.”

Mia stifled a grunt. Idiots.

“Scouting starts tonight. I want three teams on rotation, keep your communicators handy and check in every fifteen minutes. No going alone and no heroics, I want everyone back at the end of the shift. Go slow and be thorough, I want to know where the Kirich have been. Concentrate on the area surrounding the compound first, especially the water facility, and then work outward in circles. Do we have any bio-scanners that still function?”

“I think Huntak was working on them at some point, but I'm not sure he managed to get them programmed or working from our manual chargers.”

“Get him working on it again, please. If the Kirich's tech has failed as much as ours has, they won’t be able to afford to have scan-blockers running all the time. Maybe we'll catch them and get all the information we need in one go.”

“Yes, sir,” there was the sound of several chairs being moved along the floor. Mia jumped, suddenly very aware that she had nowhere to go now that the meeting was over.

And who's the idiot now? Suddenly, the armor that she still held beneath an arm felt like the flimsy excuse it was. She backed down the hall, certain the men would be making their way out of the sitting-room shortly. She moved as quickly as she dared, opening the door that Draven had shown her earlier that morning.

“Kenahi,” Draven called. There was a pause. “Any sign of Phyn?”

“None,” came Kenahi's muttered answer.

Silence filled the room.

Something more was said, but Mia didn't hear the rest, it was too risky to leave the door open now that the meeting seemed to be winding down. She closed it and leaned back against it, willing her heart to slow.

She had done it. She had spied and gathered information. Important information, too. Now, what was she going to do with it?

Mia nearly leapt from her skin when the door opened seconds later. Draven appeared in the archway. His eyes widened upon seeing her and then he closed the door behind him.

Her mind stumbled for a second at being shut in the small space with him. The last time she had been in there, he had carefully left the door open while they were together.

“Ah...I brought your armor back. I thought you might want it right away. It seems like you would anyway, so I brought it here.”

Brilliant. She fought the urge to kick herself. Idiot. The problem was, he didn't look surprised to see her.

A dark smile spread across his face.

“Did you learn what you wanted little mouse?”

Nope. Definitely not surprised. Which meant she'd been had. So much for her sneaky spy career.

She thought of telling him she didn't know what he was talking about, but in the end decided that would be an insult to both of them. She raised her chin.

“It is information I am entitled to anyway, even as your captives we deserve to know how to keep ourselves safe...and why we would need to.”

“Oh?” He leaned back against the door, the action somehow making her feel much like the trapped mouse he called her. She eyed the way his muscles bulged against the t-shirt. “So you've decided to take matters into your own hands. Tell me, now that you have this information you're entitled to, what are you going to do with it? Think carefully Mia, because now lives hang in the balance. The choice you make will have consequences that could reach far into the future and I will hold you accountable for the results.”

Mia frowned. She didn't see it that way.

“Everyone should have the information they need to keep themselves safe. How can you expect to build trust with the women if you are keeping things from them? Don't you think it's dangerous for them not to know? What if they just wondered into the hands of the enemy...whoever they are, because they don't even know that enemy exists?”

“And just what, do you propose, we tell them at this juncture? That an enemy of unknown size, power, and intent has discovered in our little safe haven and likely has some designs for harm? Should we let them know that this enemy had, at one point, a biological weapon capable of spreading a disease so terrible that when it is finished ravaging the body the dead are no longer recognizable? And when they panic, and rebel against this information, should I pull men from the scouting parties, and from security to deal with the aftermath when they could very well be discovering the information that will let us all survive?” Something flashed in Draven's eyes and she realized that it was a seed of fear. He was worried. “There is a reason rulers control what information is available to the public. Even your Earth governments understood this. People as a whole are often unable to deal with danger appropriately. They make decisions based on instinct and fear drives them to desperation they have no control over.”

Mia mulled over his words. She wasn't wrong, but she realized he also wasn't wrong, though it stung her pride a bit. If she spread the information she had learned among the women, she knew at least a few of them would panic.

“Well, what is it you plan to do? Shall I call in the guard and warn them to expect danger at their front and chaos at the rear?”

She inhaled a deep breath, and looked at the floor, thinking.

“I confess, I am intrigued as to why you thought to hide from discovery here in my bedroom. Any of the other rooms would have likely given you a better chance at your deception.”

Mia blinked at the turn of the conversation. Draven had straightened, too, his entire being coming to attention. Suddenly, he was every inch a predator. His gaze heated as it flicked from her to the bed behind her and back again. A swirl of...something…tightened in her core, sending electric tingles through her.

“Uh...” Now that he mentioned it, why had she come in here? She could have hidden in one of the other rooms and then returned the armor once the coast was clear. She had thought it would provide her with a cover story, but if she hadn't gotten caught, she wouldn't need a cover story.

“Are you curious about my bed, little mouse? Have you pictured me in it? Have you pictured you in it?”