The Last Bastion of the Living (The Last Bastion #1)(69)

“Something is really wrong out here, Dwayne. Omondi got the squad to calm down and laugh it off after a while, but I could see in his eyes that he is just as concerned as I am. He wouldn’t talk about it though.”

“I’m going to look into it,” Dwayne decided. “I’ll find out what is going on.”

“How?”

“My hidden sources,” Dwayne answered with a wink. “I can see what I can uncover on this end, but you will need to be careful out there. It’s obvious that there is a hell of a lot more going on than either one of us has been told.”

Maria nodded. Her emotions played across her face, fluctuating from fearful to weary. At last she forced a small smile, “Never a dull moment, huh?”

“With us? Never.”

“I still believe in what I’m doing,” Maria said after a beat, her cloudy dark eyes staring into the camera. “We killed so many of them today. Men, women, young, old. Up close when they’re in torpor they’re such sad looking things, but then I remember what they did to the world, to my father, to Ryan, and it’s so easy to kill them.”

He listened because he knew she needed him to. There was really nothing for him to say. He couldn’t imagine seeing the Inferi Scourge docile and up close like she was experiencing.

“It’s so...intimate,” Maria continued, pulling herself out of her thoughts. “I’m seeing who they were before they died, then setting them free.”

Dwayne knew they were pushing it on the time limit, but he didn’t want to let her go. He wanted to hear her voice and see her face. He needed to hear her speak and share her thoughts.

“Times up,” Maria whispered sadly.

“I love you,” Dwayne said.

“I love you,” Maria answered, then was gone.

Sliding off his bed, Dwayne turned on his coffee maker and again sent a message to Lindsey. She still hadn’t responded and he was becoming increasingly concerned. Sleep would be long in returning. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to sleep after what Maria had told him. He was just pouring a hot cup of the freshly made coffee when his wristlet beeped that a message was incoming.

“Hello?” he said, answering in voice-only mode.

“I got your message,” Lindsey said. Her voice didn’t sound sleepy, but actually quite alert. “I’m working on what you asked for.”

“There’s more now.”

“Shit. Really? How deep is this rabbit hole?”

Dwayne grinned despite the situation. “That’s what I’m starting to wonder. The commandant was unavailable today. They’re keeping me in the dark about the Gaia Cult situation.”

“That’s because they’re preparing a huge media blitz on the subject. They realized that they can’t keep the news of the gate closure away from the media much longer. The guards on the walls can see it’s closed. Also, if they pull the guards on the wall, then the people in the city will notice.”

“They should have thought of all that before,” Dwayne said sourly.

Lindsey let out a sarcastic snort. “They did, but their initial plan was to eliminate the wall patrols. The president overrode that plan because he didn’t want the population freaking out. He told them to make it work. Now they’re in a quandary. They have to rework their story to the media.”

“Interesting.”

“Not all is well at the top.”

“Which I know all too well,” Dwayne admitted.

“So, what more do you have for me?”

Dwayne told her.

Lindsey drew in her breath and was silent.

“What is it?”

“Well,” Lindsey hesitated. “Well, I’m not sure yet. But I did trace a few communiques from several years back that made it sound like maybe some of the Scrags were acting irregularly. Give me more time. I’ll turn up something.”

“Keep me in the loop and don’t go quiet for so long.”

“I have a life, you know. But I’ll keep in touch.”

The link went dead.

Taking a long sip of his cooling coffee, Dwayne knew for sure he wouldn’t be sleeping anymore that night.





Chapter 19


The next morning, Dwayne was almost to the monorail station when his wristlet chimed. Activating it, he glanced down to see his eldest daughter’s face. She was the spitting image of her mother when she was the same age and it always startled him. He loved Caitlyn with all his heart, but she also had her mother’s temperament, which made her a bit difficult to deal with at times.

“Hey, honey, what’s up?” he asked taking the metal stairs two at a time.

“Big news is about to break,” Caitlyn said in a tone that was a little too brisk. It meant she was scared. “I thought I would warn you.”

Dwayne hesitated as he reached the station. He stepped away from the other commuters. Caitlyn’s job as an assistant to one of the vice president’s secretaries was something she took very seriously. Regardless of him being the Castellan of the Constabulary, she never divulged any information to him. This was unusual for her. The tiny dot in the corner of the screen revealed this was a high security call.

“What is it?” Dwayne stared into his daughter’s eyes. They were the only thing she had inherited from him. The same blue, the same intensity.