The Last Mission of the Living (The Last Bastion #2)(51)

“Then stay here tonight with me,” she urged him. It was quite hard to speak, and it hurt to think too far into the future. She just wanted the here and now to be everything that could have been if they just had time.

“If I stay,” Torran said cautiously, “I want more than to just f*ck you. I want to know what it is to... love you. Okay?”

With a sorrowful giggle in her voice, she answered, “Again, you seem to read my mind.”

“Forty minutes until broadcast.”

“Let’s make it count,” she said, her fingers playing with his clearly not regulation hair.





Chapter 14


Torran was still tucked inside Lindsey’s warmth when their wristlets chimed. He attempted to roll off her, but she kept him pinned to her hips with her legs. Gazing up at him with eyes that made him want to slay an entire world of Scrags just to be with her, Lindsey brushed the sides of his face with her fingers.

“Just one last kiss before the world changes,” she whispered.

Bending his head to hers, he gave her a long, deep kiss that caused him to stir inside her.

She moaned with pleasure.

The wristlet chimed again.

A sigh escaping his lips, he swiped the screen of his wristlet to see the flashing emblem of The Bastion and a countdown timer to the announcement. Lindsey moaned when he slipped out of her to lay at her side. Reluctantly, she activated her own wristlet, rolling onto her stomach to watch the feed. Torran set his wristlet next to hers and nestled into her side. Pressing gentle kisses against her temple, he waited to hear the announcement of his fate.

When the emblem dissolved, instead of Admiral Kirkpatrick before the camera it was President Cabot. standing in the rotunda of the Capitol complex.

“Citizens of the Bastion, good evening. I apologize for interrupting your evening rituals or wakening you, but recent events have compelled me to speak directly to you tonight. Though we are unified under the banner of humanity, recent events have revealed that elements within our city do not serve the needs of people, but only their own selfish desires. Troubling information of a duplicitous nature came to light tonight.

“Admiral Kirkpatrick and his associates originally planned to speak to you at this hour in order to spread falsehoods about my administration. Their allegations included the gross mismanagement of Bastion food stores and secret plans for survival of only a select few. It is true that our food stores are limited at this time, but with the reclamation of the valley, which I ordered, there is hope for the future. Also, like our predecessors we have emergency contingences to ensure the survival of humanity. Admiral Kirkpatrick and his supporters hoped to skew the truth to appeal to your fears in an effort, once again, to rob the legally elected government of The Bastion of its power. He’d devised to propose a plan where SWD forces would venture into the dead world to retrieve food stores from long abandoned food depots. Depots that were beyond our capabilities of accessing until our fuel reserves were once more available to us due to our victory in reclaiming the valley.

“I concur that this is a viable alternative now that we have the ability to once again venture outside of The Bastion and the valley. But I believe that our strength as a people lies in working together. Therefore, I have requested that Commandant Pierce of the Constabulary and Legatus Martel of the Science Warfare Division formulate a plan that will utilize squads from both branches of our military to carry out a mission to secure these depots.”

Torran felt Lindsey tense beneath his touch. Casting a nervous look at him, she scrambled off her bed.

“Linds,” he called after her.

When she didn’t answer, he followed.

Torran found Lindsey reconnecting her computer to the grid and activating screens faster than his eyes could follow. Fingers flying over screens and keys, Lindsey moved so quickly he was in awe. Her eyes tracked across the readouts with an intensity that was almost frightening. Tapping her fingers against one screen, she twisted her lips.

“Lindsey, what are you looking for?” Torran peered at the display, but could only make out a few things.

“The roster changed,” she answered, lifting her eyes finally. With the sweep of her hand, all the screens vanished.

Squatting before her, Torran rested his hands on her waist. “Am I still on it?”

Lindsey nodded.

Torran could see the computer behind her eyes whirling away, then saw it finally flick off. It was a relief to see her return fully to him.

“So, nothing has changed,” he ventured.

“Oh, no. It’s changed.” Lindsey shrugged slightly. “Now I’m on the roster, too.”

The despair he’d felt when she had told him the news about his name being on the initial roster had been pretty intense, but it didn’t compare to the thought of her life being in danger. “They can’t.”

“They can and did. I’m in charge of the Constabulary squad. You’re in charge of the SWD.” Lindsey pressed her forehead to his and cupped his face with her palms. “We’re going out there together.”

Torran struggled to find the right words to say, but his mind failed him. He wanted to console her, but also rage against the powers that were using the enlisted as pawns in their games. Covering her hands with his, he heard the president speaking through the feed filtering through their wristlets.

“At least we’ll be together,” she said finally.