Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(84)

"Because?" Leo had arrived and joined the conversation.

"I can't-and won't-tell you that. It's important that I don't."

"What does Karathian even mean? I've never heard that word, before," Nick said.

"Karathia is so far from here you can't even see a glimmer of its sun's light," I said. "Stop asking questions. I'm still pissed."

"We need to deescalate," Matt said. "We're on the same side here, remember?"

Stop acting like you don't know anything, you pretentious schmuck. I slammed those words into his head and stalked out of the kitchen, keeping my coffee cup from spilling by employing power.

*

Opal

"It can't be," Matt paced inside an empty suite at what Corinne had dubbed the ugly building in Arlington.

"What if it is?" I asked.

"You know there's only supposed to be one."

"Yet we're looking at fallout from the drug," I argued. "After all, her talents in the first incarnation," I didn't get to finish, Matt held up a hand.

"Yeah. You're right," he eventually nodded his agreement. "But you think she can see right through?"

"I think that one hundred percent," I said.

"I don't want to send a message to you know who without being absolutely sure," he pointed out.

"You can say her name, nobody's listening," I said.

"I just don't want to call her attention to this-she asked us to take care of as much of the crap that comes along as we possibly can without interrupting her."

"I think it's time somebody knew that the drug landed here," I released a sigh. "Somebody besides us, that is."

"Fine. You tell 'em," Matt threw his hands up. "Tell them we haven't done one damn thing about sorting this out-that we're blind to the enemy's location and are relying on somebody else to take care of it."

"So far, she's building a case to keep her life," I snapped. "That stuff is illegal everywhere else for a reason. You know how others look at drug recipients-no matter what form they're in."

"It's a death sentence in most places," Matt frowned. "Even the race who created it millennia ago will now destroy what they find and kill the recipients, whether those recipients had anything to do with getting the drug or not. We have volunteers here, who really didn't know what they were signing up for. And then there's Corinne, who never agreed to take it, either time."

"And she's the most talented of all of them," I said. "If anybody gets us out of this mountain of shit, it'll be her."

"You know why I told Hunter it wasn't a good idea to have her at the meeting."

"I do, but you see what kind of problem that created, don't you?"

"We don't need a repeat of what happened the last time someone like her died."

"I hear that, all right."

*

Ilya

A day and a half passed before Corinne came home after disappearing a second time. From an unemotional standpoint, I understood. I couldn't remain unemotional, however, whenever Corinne was involved.

A part of me wanted to continue the argument. Another part wanted only to hold her close. I chose to remain silent as she walked into the kitchen during dinner, which Nathan and I prepared for the others. I'd learned that Nathan liked to cook and was quite good at it.

Corinne went straight for a protein drink inside the refrigerator, uncapped the bottle, drank some of it and turned to walk out of the kitchen again.

"Wait," Colonel Hunter held up a hand.

"You're about to tell me you can't handle any more of my disappearing trick," she waved a hand. "Got it. I'm going to the media room. Carry on."

We watched as she walked out the door and made a turn for the media room, just as she said. "Fuck," I muttered.

"Finish your meal," Dr. Shaw suggested. "Leave her alone for now. She'd have stayed in the kitchen if she wanted company."

"Screw that," James said and rose from his place at the island. I didn't intend for him to get to Corinne before me, so I beat him to the door.

*

Corinne

No matter how much I tried to squash them, panic attacks had threatened to overwhelm me the past two days. Something was wrong, I could feel it, but whatever it was stayed frustratingly outside my search field.

Less than five minutes passed before Ilya and James arrived in the media room, at a near-run. "Cori, please don't leave like that again; I nearly had a heart attack," James rasped.

Ilya, in better shape and breathing more evenly, wore a slight frown as he took a seat beside me on the sofa. I'd settled there, my knees drawn to my chest, while I sipped the protein drink I'd filched from the kitchen.

"Will you talk to me?" Ilya breathed. He hesitated to touch me-worried, no doubt, that I'd disappear again.

"Depends on what you want to talk about," I said, refusing to look at him.

"I know we haven't been completely open with you," he sighed and leaned back on the sofa.

"When were you going to tell me that Auggie will be at the meeting and I'll be the only one watching a live feed from somewhere else?"