Destin's Hold (The Alliance #5)(75)

“It’s a surprise! Come on,” he said, sliding his hand down to grab her hand.

Sula giggled and followed him. She jerked to a stop when he paused in front of a strange transport with two wheels. He picked up a hard hat and carefully slid it over her head, attaching a strap under her chin. A few seconds later, he threw his leg over and straddled the seat. He motioned for her to follow him.

Sula carefully slid on behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, careful of her still tender shoulder and placed her feet on the short metal bars sticking out of the sides. A startled squeak escaped her when he started the machine. It was loud and vibrated under her.

“Hold on. I won’t go too fast,” he shouted above the engine.

All Sula could do was nod. The head device felt heavy and strange. She wasn’t sure why she was wearing one and he wasn’t, but it would be too difficult to ask him about it at the moment.

Her arms tightened when the transport suddenly moved. A gasp of delight escaped her and she rested her chin as much as she could on his shoulder. She laughed when he wove through the streets.

Thirty minutes later, they pulled up in front of the planetarium. Destin cut the noisy engine. They stared out over the water for a few minutes before he kicked a bar down, and they both slid off the transport. He stepped closer to help her remove the protective headgear she was wearing and placed it on the transport before turning back to her and soothing the wayward strands of silky white hair that had come loose.

“Why are we here?” she asked, unable to control the shiver of memory from the recent events that had occurred.

“This place can be magical, Sula,” Destin murmured, threading his fingers through hers and walking toward the sea wall. “Kali and I loved to come here. We’d sneaked in when we were little by telling the guard that our parents were inside. When we got older, we’d find other ways in. We never got caught, but it was close a few times.”

He stepped behind her and she leaned back against him. Her hands folded over his and they stared out across the water. In the distance, patrols flew overhead, searching with special sensors for any Drethulans that might have escaped underground. Her fingers moved over the ring on her thumb. Beth had given it to her earlier. Both of them had forgotten about it during all the confusion and grief.

She lifted her hand, turning it until she could see the small slit. Running her fingernail against it, she was surprised when it slid deeper into the slot and a list of holographic images appeared. Destin’s loud breath told her he was just as startled by it as she was.

“That looks like one of the missing women,” Destin exclaimed, reaching out to touch the image of a woman. “What the hell?”

Destin’s soft exclamation echoed through the air when the video of the woman began to play. They watched it for several seconds before touching another holographic file, and then another. Each one played, giving detailed accounts of what was going on. In the background, they could hear Badrick’s mocking voice.

Sula reached up and touched the last one. It looked like the two men in the vidcom that Jag had played. She bit her lip when the video started. The two men were once again arguing with each other.

“But… what if he finds it?” Luc argued. “He might remove the disc.”

“Who… Jarmen?” Jon Paul argued in a thick French accent with a touch of indignation. “He is too busy with Jane to know what we are doing. Humans need all the help they can get. Who is to say we are not to have done this anyway? Perhaps it is what makes the world the way it is supposed to be and if we do not do it – boom, it all blows up!”

“IQ, what do you think?” Luc asked, looking at someone they couldn’t see.

“That it is above my pay grade. Ask Numbnuts; he might know,” IQ replied in a dry voice.

“Numbnuts!” Luc hollered.

“Hush! Do you want Jarmen to come see what we are doing again? Think!” Jon Paul snapped, slapping his forehead.

“I have found that anything I say is irrelevant to a conversation with both of you because you refuse to listen anyway. But, if you want my calculations… We are all going to die. Now, if you don’t mind, dinner is served,” Numbnuts replied in a slightly stuck-up tone.

“You must work on his programming. I do not like his tone of voice… And, we are not all going to die!” Jon Paul snapped in irritation.

“You are the one who wanted to make this ship grander,” Luc argued.

“Grander, oui, but not….”

Sula giggled when the video of the two men suddenly faded, as if the person recording realized that this was not something others should see. She turned in Destin’s arms and wound hers around his neck. Her lips parted and she kissed him deeply. Whoever the mysterious men were, they had given them hope of finding not only the missing women, but additional information on the Waxians and the Drethulans… and a missing Trivator named Edge.



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Destin ran his hands down over Sula’s sides to her hips. The videos had helped lift yet another cloud from over their heads. Tomorrow, he would meet with Cutter and they could go through each video and learn everything that they could. Lifting his head, he tenderly gazed down into Sula’s eyes. He had brought her here because it was a place that meant something to him – and to celebrate.