Her voice was low but he still heard her over the clatter of gunfire. Catching her gaze, he pointed to himself and indicated to the left. For a split second her eyes filled with confusion but then she nodded. Holding three fingers up, he counted down. On zero, they both broke from cover, Eris firing with a precision that warmed his combat-bitten heart. His girl was awesome, dropping her targets like a machine.
He roared as he broke cover, drawing the attention of the black-clad soldiers in the room. It was easy to see from the way they moved they were experienced in combat. Deadly.
He was deadlier.
The first guy swung around, bringing his rifle to bear. Zero grabbed the muzzle, shoving it upward even as the soldier fired. The bullets disturbed the air by his ear before ripping through the ceiling tiles above them. A lighting unit was hit and showered them with sparks.
Zero snarled as he slammed a hand into the guy’s throat, crushing his windpipe. A second later, he’d flipped the gun out of his opponent’s hands and fired. Using all his senses, both organic and cybernetic, he stepped over his fallen opponent and turned the rifle on the others. Bullets spat. One managed to tag him, his onboard registering the hits but instantly suppressing his pain reaction. Two shots later and only he and Eris were left standing.
He looked at her. She stood over the bodies she’d just gunned down of the men who’d tried to kill her, hair wild and her chest heaving. Their gazes clashed and held.
“We need to get out of here,” he told her, his onboard warning him of more movement heading their way. Bending down, he scooped up his gun belt and buckled it on. “Or we’re sitting ducks.”
❖
She had no choice but to trust him.
Eris checked her ammunition and nodded, gesturing toward the door. She’d have time to figure out what was going on when they were free and clear. For a second, he looked like he wanted to say something but then just turned toward the door, recovering a weapon from one of the fallen bodies before they moved out into the corridor.
Not allowing herself to look down at the corpses, she followed him. They moved automatically as a team, covering each other and firing arcs as though they’d been operating in combat together for years. Even though she was years removed from live combat situations and wasn’t in her armored suit, she fell right back into old habits. It was like sliding into a comfortable pair of slippers.
Her leg ached, but she ignored it in favor of focusing on her surroundings as they moved through the corridors. She had no idea where they were going, but it really didn’t matter. Anywhere away from the security department and the central area was good. The first because they could easily be bottle-necked and trapped there and the second because any shoot-out would cause massive loss of civilian life. As station security chief, she wanted to avoid that at all costs… even if people were trying to kill her.
She wouldn’t have civilians in danger, not on her watch.
The corridors were mostly deserted. Like rats, the station occupants had a sixth sense when shit was going down and had fled the main areas. The few people they encountered ran as soon as they spotted the pair, hightailing it down corridors or through doors before she could warn them to get out of the public areas.
The emergency lighting had come on, rendering the corridors dark with low-level light. Better for them, but she couldn’t help the shiver that stole along her spine. The atmosphere had turned the station from the semi-friendly place she knew to something ominous and foreboding, harboring potential enemies around each corner.
“If we head down to the storage bays,” she said in a low voice, moving past Zero as he covered the corridor, “there’s a small unused office down there and we can access the security logs from there. Find out what the fuck is going on.”
She took up the next position and he replied when he moved past her. “Clear space coming up ahead. We’ll need to cross it then drop down a level.”
She nodded in assent, knowing the section he meant. One of the larger lounges, it was occasionally used as an arrivals lounge. In other words, it was a large area they needed to cross without any cover available.
Her heart thundered in her ears as they reached the end of the corridor and stepped out into the clear. Regulating her breathing, she kept in step with Zero, noting he’d shortened his stride to match hers. Approval filled her. He wasn’t at all the hoo-rah and gung-ho type she’d assumed.
He was definitely a soldier, though. Her gaze flicked to the hand cannons he carried like they were nothing. They weren’t a design she recognized. Perhaps something experimental… which raised the question as to who the fuck he was? A spec ops soldier undercover? That would account for the fantastical story he’d given her about being from Lathar Prime. As if she’d fall for crap like that.
Halfway across the hall, the automated screens flicked from the usual colonization ads.
“Breaking news…” Red banners screamed across the screens, followed by an image of her face. “An alert has gone out for Terran First Terrorist Eris Archer. Archer… accused of the mass murder of civilians during the Krath-Seven campaign… has recently been sighted in the Tarantus system, where it is believed she was posing as security personnel.”
She almost stopped dead, the blood draining from her face. “What the fuck? I was never anywhere near Krath-Seven.”
Zero shoulder-bumped her to keep her moving. “Answers the question as to who they’re after,” he rumbled in a deep voice as he covered their rear. “Someone’s gone to a shit-load of trouble to frame you. Any
