Page 18 of Wrath
Varnog’s smile broadened, and he tilted his head to the side. “Some would say your current attitude is a clear display of aggression,” the Scelk replied with a provocative expression.
“It applies to physical aggression,” the female specified, giving him the ‘don’t be obtuse’ look.
She immediately rubbed me the wrong way. My protective instinct wanted to come to my teammate’s defense—not that he needed it. But I hated the contempt and distrust that the Coalition crew openly displayed towards him, not because of anything he had done, but merely because of what he was. How easily they forgot that the Scelks’ contribution since joining the Vanguard had saved countless lives, including those of the Xian Warriors and Dragons. Without Varnog accompanying Linette into the bowels of the Kryptid’s Royal Palace on their homeworld, we never would have gotten the edge that had allowed the allies to win the war against the General.
I couldn’t tell whether Varnog was truly indifferent to those people’s contempt or if he was just really good at hiding it. Either way, my heart ached for him.
“Whatever I could gather from your little mind—if I decide to do so—should be the least of your concerns,” Varnog said tauntingly. “Judging by what we found in your cargo hold on top of your illegal presence here, you will have a lot to answer for. In your shoes, I would start thinking long and hard about my defense. Nothing in the law protects defectors, thieves, and rogue agents.”
The female lifted her chin defiantly, the arrogant glimmer in her eyes making me even more uneasy. “Worry about yourself, Scelk. I’ve got my own shit handled.”
Without another word, she made her way towards the ship, Dread following her. Varnog exchanged a glance with our Dragon crewmate who discreetly nodded. We stared in silence until they had disappeared inside the ship. As soon as they did, I turned to look at the Scelk.
“Tell me you read her mind,” I said, hiding none of my dislike of the woman.
“Kwan!” Nathalie exclaimed, half outraged, half amused.
Varnog chuckled and looked at me with an approving glimmer in his eye. “I most certainly did,” he conceded, “but with our leader’s blessing. There is no question she knew her team was doing something illegal. However, I could not properly read her mind. Her cybernetic implants were causing some sort of interference. Somehow, I suspect it was deliberate. That female is dangerous. I am glad she is locked in the brig.”
“I agree. She gives me the creeps,” I said with a shudder.
The Scelk chuckled again. “Are you ladies good to finish transferring everything to our ship, or do you need assistance?” Varnog asked. “Linette just finished disabling their vessels and is on her way out. We’re about to go down to join Wrath. But we can give you a hand first if you need it.”
Nathalie shook her head, her dreadlocks bouncing around her pretty face. “No thanks, we’ve got it. I’ll feel better about Wrath not being alone down there.”
I couldn’t have agreed more and was grateful that she had expressed out loud the worry that had been gnawing at me since I’d seen Dread come back up without our leader. We walked back to the Defiance, followed by our hover platform. Just as we were reaching the ramp, Linette came out of the Nomad. I silenced the sliver of envy that coursed through me as they headed towards the entrance of the base.
I had known from the start that I was joining this mission more in a support role, and not to be in the thick of the action—if there was any action to have to begin with. As a recruit, it was not only normal but also to be expected. However, I was still hoping to have a chance to set a foot inside. I’d only ever seen Kryptid installations through videos and images.
Nathalie and I made quick work of unloading the contents of this second hovering platform—Varnog having already moved the haul that the first three mercenaries had brought out into the hold. We returned to the Nomad to find Dread had mostly loaded the remaining stolen equipment and samples onto another platform. While we helped him finish, Myriam was rerouting the camera feeds of the Nomad to our own systems so that we could keep an eye on things from the Defiance.
The four of us returned to our ship. While Dread and I unloaded our latest haul, Myriam explained to Nathalie what data she’d been able to recover from the Nomad’s com system and computers. Dread and I joined the women in the Infirmary just as Myriam was displaying the security feed from the Nomad on a separate set of monitors. One rotated through the different cameras of the ship, while the other monitor displayed a split screen of the fixed cameras of the three holding cells the seven Coalition crewmates had been split into and of the hallway of the brig.
But it was Wrath’s body cam feed that held my attention. I gasped as he walked around what appeared to be the experimentation lab. On the wall, two huge tanks filled with a yellowish liquid contained massive Jadozors. My reaction drew my companions’ gazes towards me.
“Holy shit!” Nathalie whispered. “Do you see the size of those creatures?”
“Damn,” Myriam said. “And I thought the scary ones we brought back from the Nomad were the adults.”
“So, did I,” I said, feeling troubled. “That thing seems almost twice the size of Wrath. If there are much more of them than those, I don’t think we’re going to be able to bring them all back.”
“Right,” Nathalie said with a frown. “Then we must figure out how to kill them.”
“Myriam and I are going down there,” Dread said. “Hopefully, you can hack what systems are left below and get some answers.”
Myriam nodded. “Yeah, let’s get to it. I am really not liking having no safe way to kill something this lethal-looking.” She turned to Nathalie. “I’ve already transferred any relevant file to Liena. So, you guys can just start digging through the data. I don’t know if the Nomad’s crew recovered the most valuable files or if they just grabbed all that they could. But you might want to start going through these ones first. Expect more data coming in soon.”
“Will do,” Nathalie replied.
“Kwan,” Dread said. “Please, transfer my Shield to Myriam.”
I complied with a bit of worry. I had a limit of three people that I could Shield simultaneously. Shielding Myriam was more important since we had confirmed psychic disruptors were weaved into the construction of the underground base. Should Dread die, my psychic Shield would still allow Myriam to catch his soul despite the disruptors.
I watched the beautiful couple walk out of the Infirmary. With a sigh, I turned back to my computer to read the data in search of the Jadozor kill switch… in between a couple of stolen glances at the monitor displaying Wrath’s body cam.
Chapter 7
Wrath