Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(83)

I'm being excluded from the meeting? I could tell she was even more upset by that.

My love, do not look at it that way. There is a reason, I assure you. I will be positioned near President Zoran at the table while the meeting takes place. These are precautionary measures, you understand.

Do you have orders, Ilya? Concerning President Zoran?

In a way. Come home and we will discuss it in private.

Then meet me in our bedroom. I don't want to see the others right now. I fail to understand what keeping me from the meeting will accomplish, other than placing people in danger.

I understand. I'll be in the bedroom soon.

*

Corinne

"What did they tell you, Ilya?" I demanded the moment he arrived in our bedroom and shut the door. Auggie and Matt had planned this somehow, only I failed to see the reason behind it.

"I am to deliver justice if Zoran makes any attempts or orders his aides to harm anyone," Ilya shrugged.

"Auggie told you to?" With arms crossed tightly over my chest, I refused to move any closer-we had a standoff going while on opposite sides of the bed.

"Colonel Hunter and Director Michaels, yes," he admitted.

"Do you understand how things could go very wrong in all this?" I asked. "What if somebody is waiting to fire warheads if anyone touches a hair on Zoran's head?"

"That has been discussed," he nodded, his eyes half-closed. I fought the urge to drop my shield and read everything in him that I could.

"Who else was in on this discussion? Want to tell me that?"

"Corinne, I think you should allow that to remain secret," he argued. "I'm going against orders to tell you what I have."

"Right. I'm just the secretary. I remember that, now." I turned away, considering where I should go-how far I should transport myself away. After all, it didn't sound as if they wanted me anywhere near the meeting.

"Corinne, they worry about many things. One of those things is you. Surely you understand that."

"Right." He knew I wasn't buying it.

"They're concerned about what might happen if you're injured or killed."

"Because then their asses would be in a sling, is that right?"

"I see I'm only upsetting you further. That is not my intention. I love you. You know this."

"I have a bad feeling about this," I snapped. "Being left out of it makes it worse."

"What's going on in there?" Auggie's voice arrived, followed by pounding on the bedroom door.

"You'd be sorry if we were having sex," I shouted while opening the door with power. It swung open with a screech and hit the doorstop so hard it nearly bounced back in Auggie's face.

"We are merely having a disagreement," Ilya said calmly. I knew he was anything but calm, but then he was a former spy, more than capable of hiding his true feelings.

Colonel August Hunter stood at the threshold of our bedroom, wearing a huge frown. James stood right behind him, and after that came Matt, Opal, Nick, Maye, Richard and Nathan.

"Those people I left alive at the Pilchuck facility?" I said as I shouldered my way past Auggie and the others. "They're dead. They holed up in that train caboose outside Granite Falls and the enemy found them. They were shot to death. There's blood everywhere," I announced as I made my way toward the kitchen.

"Were they questioned? Did they know anything?" Auggie demanded as he followed me.

"They didn't know a damn thing," I yelled. "That's why I left them alive in the first place. They had nothing to give their former boss-except their lives."

"Did you know when it was happening?" Matt asked quietly as I slammed a coffee cup beneath the brewer. Everybody had followed me to the kitchen by that time.

"Director Michaels," I began. "I knew when it was happening. If the enemy is not directly involved with an event like that, I know exactly what is happening. I knew when every one of those planes went down, along with a ton of other things before that. I was overwhelmed for a while in Alaska, so I shut it off for a few hours. My son died during that blackout period. Do you understand how hard it is not to interfere with any of that?"

"Why didn't you interfere?" Auggie was now furious, his voice an angry hiss.

"There are problems with that," I said, "if I'm not directly involved or in physical danger because of it. Destroying those creatures, killing insurgents and disarming those rockets was a stretch at times, but those points can be argued in my favor. Outright interfering can cause ripples in the timeline otherwise and I assure you, that could be a very bad thing. I have to use only the abilities I had last time-I just wasn't aware at the time what all those abilities were. There's a reason-you have to believe me. Going behind my back with Ilya only makes things worse."

"What were you last time?" Richard kept his voice even as he asked.

"You won't recognize it if I told you," I shrugged.

"Tell me anyway. To satisfy my curiosity."

"I was a Karathian Witch last time," I huffed. "A powerful one."

"You can do so much more, this time," Richard pointed out.

"Look-Karathian Witches and Warlocks have to have their power awakened when they're young, or they are limited in what they can do. I was limited last time, because the awakening wasn't performed. I bypassed that little requirement, this time."