I stared at her. She met my eyes for a few seconds, then dropped them.
“I wanted to know if you had anything you wanted to say. We’ve never gotten the chance to talk.”
She sucked in a breath, let it out slowly, then did it again. I could tell she was hunting for the right words.
“Speak up,” I said. “Someone is bound to walk in here soon.”
Jasmine glared at me. I knew immediately I’d said the wrong thing. When it came to women, I rarely did anything right.
“Colonel Riggs,” she began.
“You used to call me Kyle.”
She shook her head. “Colonel Riggs,” she said emphatically. “All of that is in the past. I don’t want to discuss any of it. Mistakes were made. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Okay.”
“But why did you kiss me?”
“Because I wanted to, Jasmine.”
She made an exasperated sound. “But that’s over now, right?”
“Yes,” I said with a firmness I didn’t entirely feel. Right then, I wondered why I was having this conversation. I could tell it wasn’t healing any wounds. It was probably opening them up again. I thought about it, and I realized I’d created this moment on purpose. Maybe it wasn’t Jasmine who needed a chance to talk.
“She’s changed,” I said suddenly.
Jasmine looked at me-for the first time, she really looked at me.
“She’s not entirely human anymore,” I said. “It’s hard to adjust.”
“You and I aren’t normal either. The nanites have rebuilt us into something new. We are like a new species. Haven’t you felt it when you are around normal people? They fear us. We seem strange to them.”
I was surprised by her words. For Major Sarin, this was a veritable speech. I wondered if she’d tried to have a relationship outside of Star Force. Maybe she’d tried to have a normal human boyfriend, and he’d been creeped out by the fact she could snap his spine at any moment if she had chosen to do so.
“Sandra has moved further out on the scale of humanity. She died, and was brought back as something new.”
“That upsets you?”
“How could it not?”
Jasmine walked around the table suddenly and gave me a light stroke, running her fingers over my head and through my hair. I stood there, not knowing what else to do. She kissed my cheek, and then retreated with light, quick steps. She was a slight woman, I realized. Thinner and an inch or so shorter than Sandra. I gazed after her fixedly. I felt a pang of longing. My heart accelerated in my chest.
I opened my mouth, about to say something stupid. Something along the lines of: ‘I do have feelings for you.’ But Jasmine spoke up suddenly, intensely.
“Why did you do it?” she demanded.
I looked at her, baffled. She’d been the one to come over and kiss me. This time, it was all her fault. I hadn’t so much as twitched.
“Do what?”
She caught my eye and flicked her gaze toward the entrance. She looked back at me and gave me a tiny nod. Suddenly, I knew what she meant. Someone was out in the corridor, listening.
I felt a new sensation. I wouldn’t call it fear, exactly, although both our lives might well be in danger. Maybe guilt was closer. I felt as if I’d been caught with one gloved fist firmly planted in the forbidden cookie jar. I studied the screen between us, but didn’t see anything. Was it Sandra in the hallway? How much had she heard? How was I going to talk myself out of this one?
“You know what I’m talking about, sir,” Jasmine continued. “Why did you promote Barrera over me? I went out there to the stars for nearly a year with you, Colonel. I think I deserve an explanation.”
I tried to think. I wasn’t quite sure if Jasmine was bringing up this new point as a cover, or if she really wanted to know the answer. I suspected it was a little of both.
“Major Sarin,” I said. “You did well on the Helios Campaign. But my second in command needs some direct experience in combat. Not just operational experience. You didn’t have that, while Barrera did.”
“I shot at a few Worms and Macros, sir.”
“I know you did. But there’s more to it than that. Barrera has shown more initiative. You are an excellent supporting officer. But it has been my opinion, since you’ve asked, that you have not yet shown the same leadership qualities he has.”
Jasmine looked positively pissed now. I reflected that it was a good thing she hadn’t asked about the promotion first. I would never have gotten a caressing touch out of her if she’d heard this earlier.
“I accept your judgment, but I don’t agree with it, Colonel.”
“Good,” I said.
She glanced at me in annoyance and irritation. I smiled at her. At that moment, Sandra decided to walk in.
“Ah, finally,” I said. “Coffee?”
Sandra looked at me frostily. She didn’t hand me the tray. Instead, she slid it over the table toward me. I caught the tray with one hand and the coffee cup with the other before they both slid off onto the floor.
“That looks good,” Jasmine said. “I’ll think I’ll go get dinner, with your permission, sir.”
“By all means,” I said.
As she left the room, I tried hard not to stare after her. She had a nice walk, almost as good as Sandra’s. It was different-less overt, but still sexy.
Sandra was in my face faster than the doughnut and coffee I was trying to eat.
“Thanks for coffee,” I said.
“If I find out you two were making out while I went to get your dinner, I’m going to kill you both.”
I managed to look surprised. “Come on,” I said. “You’re with me every second of the day.”
“I heard your heartbeat, Kyle. I heard hers, too. You were both excited about something. I think it was each other.”
“Well, there was one thing.”
Sandra stiffened. She crushed her coffee cup in her hand, creating an instant fountain of hot, brown liquid. She cursed and threw it on the floor, where the nanites dutifully cleaned it up.
“She didn’t like me promoting Barrera over her,” I said.
Sandra took a deep breath. “I heard that part. But you two were already worked up about something.”
“Take a look at the boards. We’re in the midst of a battle. A lot of good people have died out there today. Don’t the Macros scare you?”
She looked at me suspiciously, then flicked her eyes down to the boards. Macros contacts were everywhere. Motionless red circles glowed in clumps all over the island.
“Yes, they do scare me,” she admitted. “What the hell are they waiting for?”
“Some element of their plan isn’t quite ready yet. When everything is in place, they’ll move decisively.”
“You changed the subject,” she said, giving me a hard stare.
“I answered a question.”
Suddenly, she melted. She kissed me fiercely, and I responded, enjoying myself.
When the kiss was over, I reflected I’d narrowly escaped a very bad scene. I’d only spoken with Jasmine to clear the air, but things had nearly gotten out of control. I told myself I had been a fool to flirt with Jasmine. Sandra was the real deal.
Sandra came at me again. We kissed even harder. A small fear nagged at me as we made out. I grew afraid she would smell Jasmine’s touch on me somehow.
But she didn’t.
— 35
