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  Peyton snorted at ‘diplomatic ramifications.’ “Is there a policy for when a planet’s ambassador tries to commit genocide?”

  “I’m a warrior, I’ll leave that question to the politicians and lawyers.” Someone was surely salivating over that question, but Dryce didn’t care enough. He wouldn’t stop being a soldier just because his war was over, but for the first time he was starting to wonder what that life would look like outside of those narrow parameters.

  The taxi pulled up and Dryce got out to enter his identification code at the first gate, but the power on the scanner didn’t seem to be working. He pressed several of the buttons and nothing did anything. A minute later, Peyton appeared by his side.

  “Anything wrong?” she asked.

  Dryce hit the side of the scanner. “It’s not working.”

  “Hmm.” She crouched in front of it and glared, as if the power of her mind was enough to start the thing back up. Then she punched three buttons and the scanner beeped, coming back to life. “That should do it.”

  Okay, maybe the power of Peyton’s mind wasn’t a thing to be trifled with. Dryce scanned his ID and they both got back into the taxi, which drove them further onto the base. He made a mental note to let someone know about the malfunctioning scanner, but put it out of his mind.

  The base seemed unusually calm, something that only nipped at the back of Dryce’s mind until Peyton said something. “Shouldn’t there be people?”

  She was right. The base was basically a miniature city, and during the day there were always people moving around, walking and driving between buildings, monitoring the perimeter, or simply enjoying the sunny weather. But despite the fact that the sun hung bright in the sky and the temperature was as perfect as could be, there wasn’t a body to be seen.

  The taxi stopped at their destination and Dryce and Peyton shared a look. Dryce’s instincts were screaming at him to tell Peyton to stay in the taxi and go back to her apartment where it would be safe, but one look at her face was enough to convince him that she wasn’t going anywhere. And he could be overreacting. Perhaps everyone on the base had been called inside for some reason. Or maybe the place was closed and he hadn’t been notified.

  But neither of those options rang true, and as he got out of the taxi, his ears strained to hear anything that would give him a hint about what was going on. Peyton slid out from the other door and closed it quietly. They both watched the taxi pull away, their easiest means of escape quickly retreating, the automated driver having no idea that something could be terribly wrong at the Sol Defense Agency.

  The door to the main entrance of the base was closed, as it ought to be, but Dryce couldn’t see any movement within the building. He didn’t like standing so exposed in the drive, but approaching the building head on seemed to be asking for trouble.

  Peyton was looking at him, silently waiting for him to make the call. They understood their roles when it came to danger. He was the protector and he would do his best to make sure his denya was free from harm. But he had to admit, it could be useful to have a tech genius on hand if something went wrong. He trusted Peyton’s skills above anyone else’s, having seen just what she could do firsthand.

  Dryce turned toward the side of the building where a narrow path led to a place that many people liked to have lunch. It was out of the way, and not easy to spot if someone didn’t know what they were looking for. If a stranger was causing trouble with the SDA, they likely wouldn’t know about that little hideaway. Of course, if the enemy had come from within, they’d know.

  But it was a risk they’d have to take. He and Peyton just needed a place where they could think, could plan, before they did anything else. Dryce’s hand was on his blaster, ready to pull it out and twitching at every gust of breeze that blew past them. His instincts knew that something terrible had happened, even if his mind didn’t know what.

  No one met them on the path, and eerie silence was their only company. He almost wished there were screams. At least then he’d be certain that something was wrong. If the base was under attack, there should have been sirens blaring and some sort of notification on his comm, but all he had was the wind.

  And the whispers.

  He and Peyton froze on the path when they heard the words floating towards them, too soft to discern their meaning. But they were clearly coming from the lunch area he was leading them to, and with no way to discern their language, Dryce couldn’t tell if they were friend or foe.

  He pulled out his blaster and nodded for Peyton to keep behind him. He wanted to tell her to hide, but it wouldn’t do any good; besides, if there were enemy soldiers around he didn’t want to risk her being captured. He’d tear the buildings down brick by brick to get her back if that happened, and damn anyone who got in his way.

  They approached with even more caution, but when Dryce caught a flash of bluish green skin and heard quietly murmured Detyen he let out a sigh of relief. He wanted to warn the soldiers that he was coming, but they were being so quiet that he didn’t want to give away their position. Instead, he holstered his weapon and walked into the clearing, hands raised in a sign of peace. Peyton walked in behind him.

  Sierra, Raze, and Kayde all had weapons raised with the practiced efficiency of those used to battle, but when they realized who he was, they put their weapons back down and their shoulders sagged in relief.

  Raze was up in a flash, gathering Dryce in his arms in a tight hug, practically cutting off his air supply. Dryce didn’t care, happy to see his brother, happy to see his brother so nakedly full of emotion, so happy that his brother was safe for whatever value of safe existed at the moment.

  “What’s going on?” he asked when Raze finally let him go.

  The three looked grim. Raze gave the report. “It seems Yormas anticipated the possibility of capture. A small team of mercenaries infiltrated the holding facility early this morning and freed Yormas and Brakley Varrow. The good news is that their escape vessel was disabled before they managed to take off. However, they’ve managed to take control of the central building and they have hostages, at least three. One of them is Toran.”

  Dryce let the information wash over him and pushed his reaction to the news that his friend and fellow warrior was in imminent danger to the side. Toran was a capable man and they’d get him and the rest of the hostages out. “What about the Oscavian warships?”

  “That’s the other bit of good news,” Sierra said. “Intel indicates that most of the Oscavians were mercenaries. With their leaders gone and their paychecks in question, they retreated rather than risk capture. Whatever plan the mercenaries in the building are pulling off, it must not have been widely known. Or they’re die hards. Difficult to tell which.”

  “How are you all outside?” Peyton asked, stepping out from behind him. “Where is everyone else?”

  “Toran got a warning to us. We were all training at the time. He told us to get out of the building and stay hidden, that we’d regroup shortly. Dru is still inside somewhere, he’s been able to get out a few messages, but they’re scrambling the comms and we don’t know what’s happened since our last check in.” Sierra looked worried and determined, and as far as human allies went, she was just who Dryce would ask for, besides his mate, of course.

  “How many hostiles?” Three warriors, a human spy, and a scientist weren’t exactly a match for an army, but Dryce wasn’t going to leave his people to rot, and he certainly wasn’t going to let Yormas of Wreet escape justice again.

  They settled in at a picnic table while Raze broke it down. Approximately twenty Oscavian mercenaries had managed to infiltrate the building and initiate a lockdown protocol. Most of the Detyen and human forces in the building were locked in rooms or offices, and the weapons cache on the third floor was locked down to prevent anyone from accessing it. Toran and at least two other people were being held by the Oscavians and Dru was somewhere in the building trying to cause as much trouble for the Oscavians without getting caught or putting Toran
and the others at risk.

  Twenty against five, or six if they counted Dru, weren’t odds that Dryce liked, especially not when one of the people involved in the assault was his non-combatant mate.

  “We need to end the lockdown.” If they could free more warriors from where they were stuck in the building, this would be over.

  “The lockdown is the only thing preventing them from stealing a ship and getting out of here,” Kayde pointed out. “They either didn’t anticipate it when they made it happen, or however they planned to circumvent the security didn’t work.”

  Peyton cleared her throat and all attention turned to her. She offered a small, nervous smile. “I’ve got an idea.”

  PEYTON ALMOST REGRETTED opening her big mouth. She wasn’t the warrior, and she certainly wasn’t someone who could come up with an idea for how to defeat twenty mercenaries who were holding her friends and colleagues hostage. But it wasn’t like anyone else had spoken up, and in this case, she might have information that they didn’t.

  “I can get us into the building,” she said.

  Sierra pursed her lips and glared, though not at Peyton. She seemed more frustrated by the situation as a whole, not that Peyton could blame her. “The problem isn’t getting in, it’s getting in undetected. The room the mercs have taken over gives them access to the security system. They’ll see us coming.”

  “Only if we trigger the security system,” Peyton shot back. “I know a way in that isn’t alarmed.” That got everyone’s attention. She could tell they were about to demand answers, but that would take time they didn’t have. Every second wasted was one where the mercs might decide to start shooting their hostages or something equally destructive. “Once we’re inside, I should be able to override some of the door locks without taking down the whole system. We can free our people from wherever they’re trapped and end this thing. How does that sound?”

  The Detyens and Sierra shared a glance before Dryce grinned at her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Lead the way.”

  And so Peyton did. The SDA base sprawled over a large swath of land in northern Virginia with dozens of buildings seeming to grow out of the Earth. The mercs had control of the central building and could see who was coming and going, but Peyton had enough understanding of their security systems that she knew they wouldn’t be able to see if someone entered another building, not unless they were specifically looking for it. And she doubted they would be.

  But she didn’t lead the team to the front door of the building where her lab was housed. No, she led them around the side and pointed to a window just out of reach. “The alarm is malfunctioning on that window. I’m not supposed to know that my team disabled it, but the beeping was driving all of us crazy. We were going to report it to base security, but things have been a little busy this week.”

  If she’d expected a lecture on security protocols, she wasn’t going to get one. Raze went first, boosted through the window by Kayde and Dryce. There wouldn’t be a convenient ladder on the other side, but Raze handed a chair out the window and they used that to scramble their way through.

  The building was deserted and the quiet just as eerie inside as it was out. Now that they were indoors, Raze led the way with Kayde and Sierra behind him. Dryce brought up the rear and Peyton stood in the middle of them all, the only unarmed member of their group. Maybe she needed to learn to shoot a blaster. But that would have to wait until another day.

  It felt like eyes were crawling over her as they descended into the tunnel that connected this building to their destination, but Peyton hoped that was just paranoia at the situation. A giant security door barred the hallway in front of them. If anyone input their security code, they’d probably alert the mercs to their presence, and none of them wanted that yet.

  But Peyton had just used her mech skills to teleport a bomb off the planet, how much of a challenge could a simple door lock be?

  A lot, it turned out. She was cursing up a storm and sweating by the time she managed to figure out how to disengage the lock without alerting the system. She led the others through and they were in the main building.

  It should have seemed different from the science building, but it was just as quiet, and if she hadn’t known that there were potentially dozens, maybe hundreds, of people locked into rooms and looking for ways out, she would have thought the place abandoned.

  The mercs had established their position in the third sub-basement, just outside the holding cells where Yormas of Wreet and Brakley Varrow had been contained. So when they came to a staircase, Peyton and her team headed up towards where the rest of the Detyen Legion and the SDA were waiting for them. It soon became clear that the soldiers and warriors weren’t resting idly in their locked rooms.

  Booms echoed down the hallway, loud enough to make Peyton jump. The found a door with a bulge of metal sticking out of it and that bulge only grew further as the door rattled with the force of whatever was hitting it from the other end.

  “The metal will never give enough to break,” Peyton muttered as she got close to the control panel and got to work. Opening the doors wasn’t the difficulty, it was making sure that she only opened the door that she was working on. The mercs were just as trapped as the Detyen Legion and the SDA soldiers, and Peyton couldn’t risk letting them out. If the mercs gained access to the armory or one of the SDA garages and got ahold of a vehicle that could get them off planet, they’d take off with Yormas of Wreet and Brakley Varrow before anyone had a chance to stop them.

  So she took her time and was glad that Dryce and the others were there to cover her. Dru finding them almost broke her concentration, but she blocked out whatever he was saying and let herself sink into the tech until it was practically a part of her. It was times like these that she envied cyborgs and the tech that lived within them, though they were so prone to malfunctioning that she’d never consent to cybernetic enhancement.

  That was another thought to chase later.

  Finally, the lock gave way and a Detyen warrior she didn’t recognize stumbled out, his hands clasped around a metal stool that looked ready to collapse in on itself. He stared at her for several seconds, stool raised before he realized that Dryce, Raze, Kayde, Dru, and Sierra were all behind her and ready to help.

  “Good to see you, Kendryk,” said Raze. “Want to help us take this base back?”

  Kendryk nodded. “It would be my pleasure.”

  Things went faster after that. Peyton didn’t know if their progress was hidden from the mercenaries holed up in the bowels of the building, but as the number of soldiers around her grew, she didn’t care. Raze took charge, sending soldiers off to different locations to prepare to take the battle to the mercenaries and a spirit of hope seemed to infuse them all. She had dozens of Detyen warriors and human soldiers around her, all working in harmony towards a common goal, and it gave her hope for the future they could have if they worked together.

  But first they needed to take care of this final threat.

  The armory was the last room they hit, and Peyton’s heart was beating fast with excitement. She undid the lock faster than any other, practice making the movements easy. She’d need to report the method she was using to the people in charge, but if they were upset, she’d worry about that tomorrow. Today she’d just be happy that she could get their people free.

  Soldiers streamed through the door once she had it opening, making for the racks of blasters and las guns that lined the walls, but Dryce held back and placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

  She offered him a smile. She didn’t realize she’d be able to grin under such dire circumstances, but the tide had turned their way and she knew deep in her bones that everything was going to turn out alright. But Dryce didn’t look so confident; no, she could read the worry clear as day in his eyes, and she was almost certain of the request he was about to make.

  “I want you to go to your lab and lock yourself in,” he said, voice somber and shoulders braced for
a fight.

  But Peyton didn’t have any fight left in her, and she had no delusions about her ability to fight. “Is that far enough away to be safe?”

  “It’s safer than going back outside. Dru’s team has taken the security control room back from the two mercs who were guarding it and they’ve spotted a team of mercs outside just waiting to take anyone out who tries to flee.” His eyes were so serious that Peyton wanted to kiss his worries away, but now was certainly not the time.

  “Okay. I’ll lock down the lab. We’ve got some hardcore security measures down there. I’ll be safe. You bring yourself back to me in one piece.” And because he was her mate and he was about to head into battle, Peyton allowed herself one kiss, not quick enough to be anywhere near satisfying, but long enough to gain more than one look from the gathered soldiers.

  Peyton took care heading back through the now not quite as deserted halls. Detyens and humans patrolled with determination and from the way they held themselves, she didn’t think whatever they had planned would take long. But the mercs still had hostages, and there was no way that her people were going to sacrifice the hostages to take out the mercs. So she could be in for a long and boring wait in the lab.

  Better long and boring than full of danger.

  She made it to the tunnel that led back to the science building without issue, and once she was through, it was like entering another world. The eerie silence that had plagued the central building fell around her, and when something banged in the distance, Peyton practically jumped out of her skin. She tried to tell herself it was just a door closing or perhaps something to do with the ventilation system, but her steps quickened and her heart beat faster. She just wanted to make it to her lab. To safety.

  She was convinced that she’d find an enemy around every corner, but as far as she could tell the building was deserted. Maybe she should have asked to have one of the soldiers escort her, but she didn’t think Dryce could spare anyone. She wouldn’t be responsible for anyone getting hurt just because she was frightened to walk alone.