The Last Mission of the Living (The Last Bastion #2)(45)

Silence fell over the four people as the enormity of the situation weighed down on them. Maria scooted forward and placed her hand on the vid screen. Lindsey slid out of her chair and placed her hand over Maria’s.

“Linds, we know you’ll do your best. We will, too. But we want you to know that one way or the other we’re going to be okay, and we want you to be, too.”

“Maria, I’ll stop the f*ckers from finding you,” Lindsey vowed.

“I f*cking love you, my sister,” Maria whispered with emotion.

“I’ve got your back, sister,” Lindsey answered.

With a very dour look on his face, Dwayne also bent toward the screen. “Lindsey, Commandant Pierce, if they do find us, we’ll transmit our location to you so you can dispatch a Constabulary team to destroy our bodies. We’ll take care of our exit ourselves when they get here. Though the virus in our veins has been... miraculous so far, we have no idea how it will continue to evolve or change us. The Bastion must survive as humans, not as Scrags. Boon or not.”

“Agreed, Castellan. Honestly, I wouldn’t let you back into the city anyway. We can’t risk an outbreak.”

Dwayne nodded. “You’re wise, Sir.”

“I’m paranoid, Castellan. But it does sound as if the SWD is not finished with its attempt to take over the Bastion. That being said, let’s not ever receive that final transmission,” Commandant Pierce replied.

Staring into the eyes of her dearest friend, Lindsey felt her own eyes filling with unshed tears. With their hands pressed against the vid screens, it was almost as if they were touching. It had been foolish to believe the SWD wouldn’t turn their attention toward the missing castellan and vanguard. They were listed as MIA, not dead. That made them a valuable resource of The Bastion in the eyes of the SWD.

“The Bastion’s reach is going to be limited, but we can’t be sure of how far the SWD will try,” Dwayne continued. “We’ll be far away by nightfall.”

Lindsey finally dropped her hand and started to scribble on her pad again. “I’m going to make a quick program for your wristlets. It’ll redirect the transmission to a node where I will drop all the city updates. It’ll be a floating data cloud, so they shouldn’t be able to track it back to you. I’ll have to work out the kinks and—”

“Linds, we trust you,” Maria said in a soothing tone.

Raising her eyes, Maria could see her friend’s concern. “One month intervals. Okay?”

Dwayne directed his attention to Maria, who met his worried look with a slight smile. “Lindsey can pull it off, babe.”

With a short nod, Dwayne agreed to the arrangement. “We won’t be sending anything back unless it’s of vital importance. If things go to shit, we’ll send a direct transmission on the open frequency.”

“We could always try to persuade the population to side with you and Maria,” Commandant Pierce suggested.

“I’m sorry, Commandant,” Dwayne said, “but we can’t put our faith in a public outcry. These are our lives. And if the virus in us mutates, or even if there is a slight chance it would adversely affect another person, we can’t take the chance of returning to the Bastion.”

A faint beep sounded on the other end and Maria reached out to touch a control panel out of sight. “We need to go. A pulse just hit the outer junction.”

Before Lindsey could even utter goodbye, then screen went dark.

“No more playing by the rules,” Commandant Pierce said in a fierce voice. “Hack into the SWD and rummage through their guts. I want to know what’s going on. Immediately. It’s obvious they haven’t given up yet, and neither are we.”

“Yes, sir.” Lindsey stared at the faint imprint of her hand on the vid screen and wished fervently she could have said goodbye.



*



Gnawing on a chalky protein bar that was supposed to taste like chocolate, Lindsey stared at the computer in front of her. Tucked into a tiny unused office, she was occupied with peeling away all the layers of secrecy inside the SWD. Her mind plucked the words from the screen and transformed the data into images within her mind that made it much easier to collate and process.

Fingers tapping over screens, Lindsey pieced together a story that chilled her to the bone. A cup of coffee was ice cold at her elbow, and she set the bar aside without finishing it. Leaning forward, her fingers flew across the display.

“Fuckers,” she whispered in anger.

Continuing to swipe the pertinent information onto one drive, Lindsey almost wished she wasn’t discovering just how deep the rabbit hole went inside the SWD.

The door chimed and Lindsey checked the security feed. Commandant Pierce stood outside with her hands resting on her narrow hips. Lindsey unlocked the door and it swished open. Once the officer was inside, Lindsey shut and locked the door.

“What did you find?” Commandant Pierce asked, staring at the computers Lindsey had dragged into the small space. The air conditioner was on high and the commandant shivered. “How bad is it?”

“Oh, it’s bad. Really bad,” Lindsey answered. She’d only brought one chair into the office, so she offered it to the commandant. “Take a seat?”

“I’ll stand. Show me.”

Lindsey quickly saved everything she needed and disconnected from the grid. “Well, the delay in Admiral Kirkpatrick surrendering was on purpose. During that time period, food stores were transferred out of several warehouses to another location.”