“The same way it saved you. A dust devil picked her up. It carried her way the fuck into the sky and dropped her. She broke her neck in the fall.” Even an armored cyborg couldn’t survive having his or her neck snapped. I swept my gaze over the calm, motionless dunes. The air had cleared, leaving the sky bright cyan blue.

  “Can I see?”

  “The body?”

  She nodded.

  “Over here,” I beckoned, and we tromped a hundred meters to Stephanie’s crumpled body. Besides the obvious broken neck, one leg bent at an angle legs didn’t bend. “It scares the crap out of me to think this could have happened to you,” I said.

  She eyed the body and then surveyed the dunes. “The alien sand knows who’s on its side and who isn’t. Who’s dangerous, and who isn’t. I suspect it’s been observing us a lot longer than Geo-Tech has been studying it. I caught the gist that Gayle and Breeze believe it’s telepathic. I think it is, too. I’ll bet it knows a whole lot more about humans and our intentions than anyone could guess.”

  “You could be right.” Geo-Tech had proven the sand was an intelligent life-form, so it had the ability to act with deliberation. Every time Stephanie had shot into the sand, she’d killed thousands of tiny aliens.

  It certainly appeared the dust devil had retaliated in self-defense.

  “When I discovered Stephanie worked for the president, I was stunned,” she said. “I could hardly believe it. C-Force service is such a noble pursuit, but she chose to work for Jodane? It’s hard to fathom. But then, maybe, like me, she didn’t understand what she was getting into, and by the time she did, she couldn’t get out.”

  I shook my head. “She’s not like you. Did you kill anybody for Jodane?”

  “No! Of course not. I would never do that.”

  “Stephanie was willing to. You may not have been her first hit. We need to find out how many others may have died at her hand. It’s also critically important to discover if Stephanie was compromised after enlisting in C-Force or if she’d been in Jodane’s camp all along and entered as a mole.” If one spy had gotten in, there might be others.

  Tempest looked at me. “Stephanie told me she’d attended C-Force Academy with you, Tack Grayson, and Axel Vander.”

  I shook my head. “No. Tack, Axel, and I did graduate together, but Stephanie wasn’t in our group. She didn’t join the academy until a decade later.”

  “I knew that didn’t seem right!”

  Stephanie shouldn’t have known the five of us had been in the same academy class. What else might she have learned and passed on to Jodane? She was dead, so we’d never find out.

  “The sand eliminated a threat—and I can’t blame it for that—but we lost the ability to get answers to a lot of questions. Quint will conduct a full internal audit, but we may never fill in all the gaps.”

  “Bane!”

  Speak of the devil. In full body armor, Quint marched over the top of the dune, accompanied by a team of cyborgs.

  “The cavalry has arrived.” I wrapped an arm around Tempest.

  She squeezed my waist. “The cavalry has already been here.”

  Quint approached and swept the scene with laser-sharpness, analyzing the situation. Born blind, he’d received cybernetic eyes upon enlistment and transformation. He couldn’t see the way ordinary humans did or even cyborgs with visual mods like Tack Grayson—he saw much, much more. Even I didn’t know the full range of his abilities.

  “You appear to have the situation under control,” Quint said and then shifted his gaze to the body.

  “He didn’t kill her. The sand did!” Tempest burst out.

  “As the body position suggests,” he said. “I’m glad you’re all right, Ms. Waters. We were worried about you.” He then focused on me. “Where did you get the RTC?”

  “I hijacked it.”

  Quint nodded. “That would explain the stolen hovercraft alert.” He motioned to Gunner and Patton, two members of his team. “Clean this up. Transport the body to HQ.” Then he focused on us. “You two report to headquarters.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Tempest

  The next morning

  I didn’t think I’d fallen asleep, but a whiskered face nuzzling my neck awakened me. I sprang upright, slamming my forehead into Bane’s.

  “Ow!” he and I both yelped.

  I flung my arms around his neck. “You’re here! I was getting worried.”

  “I’m sorry. I couldn’t break away.” He held me tight. “The debriefing took a while, and I wasn’t allowed to contact you until we were done.”

  “I understand. I’m just happy you’re here now.” I hadn’t seen him since yesterday. After leaving the dunes, we’d arrived at C-Force headquarters in early evening. He had blindfolded me before we entered Città, explaining it was standard security protocol.

  At headquarters, he’d led me to an interview room where Quint had grilled me for hours about government and corporate plans, Kathryn Jodane’s political operations and aspirations, the people in her employ, and her daughter, Sandra. Drilling down to minute detail, he’d extracted from me information even I hadn’t been aware I knew. I’d observed way more than I realized.

  No wonder Jodane had wanted me dead.

  Relentless, Quint had asked the same questions multiple times in different ways. His unnerving metallic eyes missed nothing. I got the sense he noted and recorded every blink, every swallow, every breath I took. He was like a cyborg lie detector. I had no secrets to hide anymore, but it was intimidating as hell. It would have been even scarier if Bane hadn’t been there.

  The interview extended into the night then Bane disappeared into a private session with Quint, and I was blindfolded again and escorted by Gunner to the safe house.

  I’d figured Bane’s debriefing would take a while, but I hadn’t expected he’d be gone all night. Despite his assurances he wouldn’t be returning to Earth, I’d feared I might never see him again. Maybe Quint had deemed us being together a security risk. Maybe Quint had dispatched him on a mission. Maybe this. Maybe that.

  “Is Gunner still outside?” I asked.

  After depositing me in the safe house, the cyborg had taken up his post outside.

  “No, I relieved him.” He scanned my face. “How are you faring? Are you okay?”

  “I am now that you’re here.” I fingered the fasteners on his shirt. He’d removed his jacket but still wore his holstered blaster. “You’re not going back to Earth, right?” I sought reassurance.

  “No. My cover was blown. But, like I promised, I’d resign before I’d leave you here and go to Earth. I did receive new orders though. A new assignment.”

  “Doing what?” He might not be sent to Earth, but his next mission could take him anywhere.

  He flashed a grin. “Being your bodyguard.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. That way I can keep a real close eye on you.” He scooted on the mattress to lean against the headboard and then scooped me onto his lap. “Close, like this.” He smelled like soap and had changed into a long-sleeved tan pullover and brown tactical pants.

  “Did you shower?” Having been buried in aliens, I’d brushed myself off and bathed as soon as I had arrived at the safe house.

  He nodded. “At headquarters.” He rubbed his jaw. “Forgot to shave though.”

  “You’re sexy with a little scruff.” He looked far less formidable, more approachable this way although possibly only my opinion had changed. Once, he’d scared me to death. Now, I trusted him completely.

  “This, however, can come off.” I tugged at the holstered blaster digging into my ribs.

  He removed it and set it on the bed stand.

  “If your job is guarding me, what am I supposed to do?” I’d logged long hours as an attorney in a law firm and then insane hours as a presidential corporate liaison. Some downtime would be welcome, but eventually I would have to get a job to keep busy, or I’d go stir crazy,

  Eyes the color of ice floes twinkled. “Have lots of sex with me.”

  “I meant for a job!” I said, but I smiled.

  “Oh, you want another job?” he joked. “Well, you’re cleared to work at Geo-Tech if you still want to. Logistics to be determined, but Breeze will get in touch in the next day or two. You will be assigned a new identity. Quint has arranged for your demise to be reported to the authorities on Earth. The official cause will remain the explosion. However, C-Force will leak to Jodane that you were not in the crash, but that Stephanie succeeded in carrying out her orders, and then I killed her.”

  “Rather than saying she got swept up in a dust devil? If people realize how dangerous the sand can be, wouldn’t that motivate them to leave?”

  “Yes, but it might also motivate the government to try to destroy the sand. If we report Stephanie died in a dust storm, and news breaks that we’re dealing with an alien life-form, somebody will make the connection that Stephanie wasn’t killed by a weather event but by the alien.”

  I shuddered, remembering how Stephanie’s solution to the sand problem had been to kill it. “So, what happens with Jodane? Can she be brought up on charges?”

  He sighed. “Unfortunately, no.”

  “No? No? She committed attempted murder! She ordered a hit on me! She told you to kill me. And then ordered Stephanie to do it. What more proof do you need?”

  “But the way she told me is not indictable. She instructed me to relieve you of your duties. That meant kill you, but to everyone else, she might have been telling me to fire you. Since Stephanie is dead, we’ll never know how she phrased the order to her.”

  Most likely it was similar. Stephanie said something to that effect—Bane hadn’t done his job, therefore she had to.

  “Furthermore, no president has ever been arrested by a policing agency. Only five presidents in three hundred fifty years have been impeached, that is, charged with a crime and tried, and none were removed from office as a result. A sitting president is well-insulated from the consequences of his or her actions.”

  “So, she gets away with attempted murder?”

  He shook his head. “No. C-Force will bring her to justice; we’re collecting evidence and building a case.”

  “Since you’re staying with me on Sajave, does C-Force have anyone on the inside anymore?”

  “I don’t know. I expect Quint does have a contingency plan, but what that might be is anybody’s guess.” His arms tightened around me. “Until Jodane is prosecuted, I’ll keep you safe.”

  “I know you will. I trust you.”

  He took a breath and released it. “I always told you you could, and then I screwed up. I won’t let you down—”

  I pressed my palm to his mouth. “Don’t blame yourself. We both faced a dynamic situation, and neither of us had the information we needed.”

  We’d been in a Catch-22. We couldn’t reveal ourselves until we trusted the other; we couldn’t trust until we’d revealed ourselves. Undercover, Bane hadn’t been at liberty to reveal his identity. Immersed in the culture of fear and secrecy, I’d been wary of accepting assistance from the president’s enforcer.

  Somehow, we’d overcome the distrust.

  I traced his lips with my thumb. He pressed a kiss to my palm.

  “You make me feel, Tempest.” The naked vulnerability in his gaze revealed he was saying much, much more.

  I’m falling in love with you, too. I’d speak the words after he got more comfortable with feelings again. Warmth kindled in my body and spread through my soul. We formed a good team. He’d safeguard my life; I’d protect his heart. “You make me feel, too,” I said.

  He smiled. I smiled. And then our lips met, and I started my new job—having lots of sex.

  Epilogue

  Sandy Jodane

  Earth, two months later

  The hairs on my nape prickled, and I whipped around to scan the street. A Secret Service agent followed behind me, but I couldn’t rely on his protection. Did the woman with the stroller really have a baby in the carriage? Were the people in suits with heads bent over comm devices truly business people on their way to the office? I eyed a jogger. Could he be one of my mother’s enforcers?

  For the past week, I’d had the sensation of being watched. Having grown up in politics, I was used to being observed and photographed, but this foreboding was different.

  I slipped a hand into my pocket and gripped my illegal blaster. As the president’s daughter, I could have anything I desired, except security or freedom. But, right now, I was just glad to have some personal protection.

  DC had outlawed weapons and exacted stiff penalties for violations, so the only people who could get their hands on them were criminals and elected officials. There was more than a little truth in the jest that the two were the same.

  The jogger sprinted by me. I expelled a shaky breath and released my death grip on the weapon.

  “Something wrong?” Hal asked. My Secret Service agent was late twenties, recently married, baby on the way. That’s all I knew about him because he’d only been assigned to me last week. I cycled through a lot of agents. Just as I got comfortable with one, he or she would be reassigned.

  “You notice anything strange?” Dumb question. If he had, he would have reacted in some way.

  “Like what?” He wore the requisite sunglasses, but I could tell he was scanning the area.

  “Nothing,” I said. “I guess I’m jumpy.” How could I warn him about my mother and her secret enforcers?

  Then again, maybe nobody had been following me. Maybe I was being paranoid.

  Or maybe this is what sober is. Hyperalert. Hyperattuned. Stardust smoothed and dulled the rough edges. When you were flying high, no matter how bad shit got, it didn’t matter.

  The sensation of being watched had vanished now, anyway, so I continued on, heading for my hovercraft. My very nice, expensive luxury building did not offer hovercraft parking, so I rented space at a nearby garage.

  Cherry blossoms bloomed, releasing their cloying scent and scattering petals the color of stardust. I’d dredged up the willpower to dispose of Mother’s little gift, but spring had arrived in DC and, while everyone else saw beauty, I saw temptation, desperation.

  But that wasn’t why I was leaving town.

  Having discovered her most trusted enforcer was a C-Force operative, while her spy in C-Force, Stephanie Milner had been killed, Mother had begun cleaning house. Stephanie had managed to carry out her orders and relieve Tempest of her duties, but that brought Mother little consolation. She kept score, and right now the board was tied, C-Force 1, President 1, and she intended to win, no matter what the cost. She’d initiated a search-and-destroy mission to rout out and purge the traitors.

  I rounded the corner. Woman and baby carriage and the business people crossed the street and continued straight. My Secret Service agent followed at a respectable pace. I scanned the avenue, noting doormen hailing hovercabs for apartment residents, people entering and exiting buildings, traffic zooming overhead, a new set of pedestrians footing it.

  Again, my neck prickled.

  Maybe I am getting paranoid. Was anyone connected with Kathryn Jodane not paranoid?

  Mother’s not-at-all veiled threat that liabilities should be disposed of haunted my every waking hour. You stood for the president—or you acted against her. It was all or nothing with Mother. She accepted no middle ground. The more independent and less malleable I became, the greater the threat she would perceive me as being. I’d always known she’d been using me, but, being high most of the time, I’d gone along with it because I hadn’t cared about anything but my next hit. Clean now for ten months and seventeen days, I could no longer accept the unacceptable.

  But what could I do about it? No place was safe—Tempest had fled to Sajave, and look what happened to her. I’d attempted to warn her, but she’d never contacted me. Either she hadn’t received my message in time, or she was already dead when I’d sent it.

  Would I be next? Besides Mother’s overall disappointment in me, she probably knew I’d tried to warn Tempest.

  There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. No one who could help me. I glanced at Hal. If he came between me and an enforcer, he’d pay the price.

  But I’d decided to get out of town in case my presence reminded Mother she’d left a loose thread hanging. And maybe physical distance from DC might provide me with the head space to come up with something. So, I’d scheduled a little mountain vacay. Alone.

  Except for Hal. He’d be coming with me.

  I longed for genuine alone time but accepted that wasn’t possible. A member of a political family since birth, I’d never known privacy. I’d lived my entire life in the public eye. As soon as my mother won the nomination for president, I’d had Secret Service on my tail everywhere I went—and often an enforcer.

  I hoped Hal’s wife wouldn’t get upset he’d be spending the week with me, but any fears about his fidelity were groundless. Hal was a professional. He’d never abrogate his responsibility or violate his ethics. I could tell. Besides the fact that he was a decade and a half younger than me, I didn’t sleep around, either. Despite rumors, I’d never prostituted myself to get drugs. Hell, I never had to. I could get whatever drug I wanted. My reputation as a druggie skank was so well known, the Secret Service had code-named me Dust Bunny.

  With Hal just a few paces behind me, I reached the parking garage. My armored hovercraft was parked on the second of four levels. This structure was convenient because of the rooftop launch pad—you didn’t have to roll out into ground traffic. Normally, I’d be chauffeured around, but I’d managed to get approval for Hal and I to travel in two different vehicles. I’d head for the mountains in my hovercraft. He’d follow in a Secret Service vehicle.

  Inside the garage, the people elevator was to my right with stairs next to it. “What level are you on?” I asked Hal.

  He didn’t answer.

  “Hal? Where’s your hovercraft?” I glanced over my shoulder.

 

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