The Last Mission of the Living (The Last Bastion #2)(44)

The last thing Lindsey did was redirect the feed from the hidden program in her wristlet into the pad. “Everything is set.”

“Good.” Commandant Pierce pushed a chair toward Lindsey. “Take a seat.”

Lindsey obeyed and Commandant Pierce settled into her leather chair. On the corner of her desk was a photo of the Commandant’s teenage daughter. For some reason, Lindsey had a tough time imagining Commandant Pierce as a loving mother. She was so intimidating it was hard to visualize her as anything other than an officer. Lindsey deactivated the pads in her fingers and tucked the stray strands of her hair back into her bun. It was a little strange to realize she wanted Dwayne and Maria to see her as a dignified soldier. After a second, she realized it was because they’d both seen her at her worst, and she wanted them to be consoled with the idea she was fine in their absence.

The secret program activated and immediately redirected itself to the pad. Lindsey leaned forward and answered. Instantly the vid screen filled with the image of Dwayne and Maria seated side by side. Dwayne’s arm was draped over Maria’s shoulders, and she leaned into him slightly. Behind them was an array of consoles. The couple appeared to be in an aircraft or city control center. Both were clad in plain black t-shirts and Maria grinned the second she saw Lindsey.

“Linds!”

Forgetting all about protocol, Lindsey grinned and waved. “Maria! It’s good to see you.”

“As you can see, we’re alive,” Dwayne said with a broad smile.

“Castellan, you’ve never looked so... young.” Commandant Pierce lifted one eyebrow in surprise and glanced at Lindsey. “Am I right?”

Dwayne appeared to be in his early thirties. The gray was gone from his brown hair and the lines in his face were diminished. Instead of a handsome man in his early fifties, he looked just a little older than Maria.

Affectionately, Maria laid her hand on his cheek. “A perk of the virus Dr. Curran gave me.”

Dwayne kissed her palm, then leaned toward the camera. They, too, had rigged their vid screen to capture the wristlet’s transmission. “Though we’re happy to see both of you, we wouldn’t be breaking our radio silence if we didn’t feel it was of dire importance to the city. We accept that we’re on our own out here.”

“You appear to be doing well,” Commandant Pierce noted.

“The Scrags don’t even look at us. We’re fine,” Maria answered. “We’ve been receiving your messages, Linds. And we have some concerns about what’s going on with Admiral Kirkpatrick.”

“He surrendered last night,” Lindsey said.

Dwayne frowned. “That’s even more worrisome then. It’s probably a part of whatever plan he’s concocting.”

“You think he’s planning to somehow continue his coup d’état?” Commandant Pierce folded her arms across her chest.

“There have been pulses emanating from The Bastion activating the surveillance grid in the outside world,” Maria answered. “They’re looking for us.”

Sickened at the thought, Lindsey pulled out a smaller pad from her uniform pocket to take notes. “Are you sure?”

“We’re in Beta City until this transmission ends, then we’re leaving. The pulses are weak, so they have limited range. We plan to be beyond their reach,” Dwayne answered. “There were four pulses yesterday that activated the grid for two hours. We’re in a secure spot, so we weren’t detected.”

Beta City was actually an enormous evacuee camp with all the luxuries of a small city. It had been a holding area for the civilians that were eventually moved to The Bastion. That meant Maria and Dwayne were closer to The Bastion than Lindsey liked.

“We’re actively shielding ourselves from all types of scans.” Maria lifted both hands to reveal that the wristlet was gone. “We’re going to have to keep them off and in a shielded container. One of the pulses delivered a program that attempted to hack through any we’d installed to hide ourselves or allow communication with the city. Lindsey, you’re the best, but they almost got through.”

Scribbling down notes with her stylus, Lindsey nodded. “Can you send me a copy of the pulse and the program?”

“Already on its way,” Dwayne answered. “We got four more minutes on this transmission, then we’re leaving.”

“And you can’t tell us where,” Commandant Pierce instructed somberly.

“We’ve accepted that we can’t go back to The Bastion. Especially after the pulses yesterday,” Maria said, sadness in her big dark eyes. “They’re looking for us, which means they know we’re alive, and that we have a different virus in our veins than the others.”

“Dr. Curran talked.” Commandant Pierce shook her head. “I knew that woman couldn’t be trusted.”

“If they find us, we’ll never see the outside of a SWD lab again,” Dwayne said pensively. “We have transportation with stealth tech. In a few hours, we’ll be gone. It took us two weeks to get this old girl up and running, but she’ll keep us safe until we’re out of the reach of the pulses.”

Though Lindsey was relieved that her friends were alive and together, she realized they weren’t truly safe yet. It would be up to her to make sure they were.