“Ah, good.”
She caught a hint of fierceness in his eyes before turning to leave.
In an uncharacteristic burst of uncertainty, Fallon waffled back and forth about the last goodbye on her list. In the end, she decided she’d been a bad enough wife to Wren as it was. She didn’t want to disappear forever without saying goodbye. Not that she was going to. But just in case. A BlackOp never knew which mission would be her last.
She found Wren in the mechanics’ shop. When Wren turned to see Fallon, her eyes widened with fear. Clearly, she had some inkling about what was to come.
“Here we are, where we first met,” Fallon said as she approached her former wife.
“Why? What’s happening?” Wren’s voice was a whisper, even though no one else was close enough to overhear.
“I have something I need to do.”
“No. Don’t go.”
“It’s not optional. But I wanted to tell you goodbye in person.”
Wren rubbed a hand over her forehead, smearing a thin streak of grease across her skin. It made Fallon smile. “Don’t say goodbye. That makes it sound permanent. Just say you love me and you’ll see me soon.”
Could she say that? With the messy past between them, and her not really knowing what they were to each other? The feeling was there, but saying it would be skipping way ahead of where their relationship currently was.
But whether they ever worked as a couple or not, she’d always feel deeply for Wren. So she hedged. “I do feel for you. It isn’t perfect and it isn’t easy, but I do.”
Wren smiled. “I’ll let you get away with not actually saying it.”
Fallon laughed. Wren was the most resilient person she’d ever known. She would always find her way forward, no matter what. “I’ll see you soon.”
With her goodbyes said and her just-in-case messages created, Fallon narrowed her focus on what she had to do. She had no idea what would unfold, but it would be big. After these months waiting to go toe-to-toe with Blackout, she was more than ready to go back to where it had all started.
It would take the Nefarious four days to reach Jamestown. They could get to headquarters sooner if they were willing to burn out some of the ship’s components, but the team had agreed that doing so would be a risk that outweighed its benefits. Colb had pushed for greater speed, but quickly backed down when he saw that the consensus was against him.
They had a few hidden assets that Colb didn’t know about, and she hoped that would be enough to keep them a step ahead of him. She carried the electricity suppressor Cabot had given her. Kellis had installed the sensor blocker Hawk had acquired for them after the pirate attack. It would make it a lot harder to see the Nefarious coming. Such a device was illegal to have within the PAC zone, but being brought to trial for owning contraband was the least of Fallon’s worries. The fact that she seemed to be developing a habit of acquiring illegal items struck her as ironically amusing.
Hopefully, their surprises and their awareness of Colb’s duplicity would keep them alive. Some well-placed vainglory didn’t hurt either, and Fallon had faith in her team. This would be their biggest adventure yet. If it all worked out, Hawk would have some fantastic stories to tell at the bar.
The closer they got to PAC command, the higher her adrenaline soared. By the final day, she couldn’t sleep. Her senses clanged with awareness. She was ready to work.
She was reluctant to relinquish the bridge of the Nefarious to Peregrine at the end of her shift. She wanted to see everything, be on top of every detail. But they were surrounded only by empty space, so she rose from the pilot’s chair.
“We’ll be there soon,” Peregrine observed. “Are you ready?”
“I’ve been ready for months.”
Peregrine smoothed her long ponytail as she sat. “Ever wonder what life looks like for us once we’re done with all this?”
“Right now I’m just taking things as they come. But I’m sure restructuring will require creating more oversight and accountability, even in the clandestine divisions.”
“I’m not made to be a bureaucrat.” Peregrine’s customary frown was firmly in place.
Fallon paused. Peregrine wouldn’t be mentioning that again right now without a reason. “Are you saying you wouldn’t take part in reorganizing Blackout?” It hadn’t occurred to her that Avian Unit wouldn’t do whatever came next as a team.
“I’m saying that I’ll never be someone who sits in an office every day, giving orders. You and Raptor could do that. Hawk and I aren’t made that way.” Peregrine fixed Fallon with a steady gaze.
“You’ve been worried about this.” Fallon wished she’d realized this was weighing on Per so much. Fallon hadn’t been thinking far enough ahead to worry about what came next. Per clearly had.
“Yes. I’m not sure what my place would be in the new order of Blackout.”
Fallon put a hand on her partner’s shoulder. “We’ll figure it out when we get there. No matter what, we’re a team, as always.”
“Right.”
Fallon wasn’t sure Peregrine sounded entirely convinced. Maybe more like eighty percent. But what else could Fallon say? She could only keep pushing forward.
“I mean it. We’ve gotten through everything else. We’ll figure that out too. Blood and bone,” she reminded Peregrine.
Peregrine nodded. “Blood and bone.” At least in that, she sounded one hundred percent confident.
Fallon paused at the door to her quarters, then went past it to Raptor’s. He might still be sleeping, but he was due to be up soon anyway.
The door opened immediately, and she was surprised to see Ross inside. Raptor waved her in.
“Hey. Anything up?” She hoped she didn’t have more existential crises on her hands. Their team needed to be focused on the mission ahead, and nothing else.
Ross looked up at her and smiled, but the hand he raked through his shaggy hair belied his attempt at reassurance. “Would you believe
