Chapter 23
Kael was in a foul mood.
His post-mission dressing down from Vice Admiral Brandt had gone… poorly.
This despite submitting a dense—if incomplete—report on their Perdition op, packed with more intel on the cult than SID had gathered in years.
When he’d mentioned that, Brandt had smirked at him and informed him that if there were actually anything meaningful in Kael’s report, he would have been informed of it. Which meant the fucker hadn’t even bothered reading it.
Which, in turn, made him question why he bothered writing it in the first place.
Then Brandt had informed him that he had two weeks left to show enough progress to justify keeping this experiment going.
Two weeks to do what he was realizing might be impossible.
They had lost Spook and Shade. Phantom was literally living up to his name.
He finally understood why mapping the Inbetween was a pipe dream, and now Patch informed him that all her work on the Fold Shield technology had been for nil.
How the fuck was he supposed to keep Wraith alive?
The comm began to beep. Insistently.
High priority communication. Brandt again?
He schooled his face into parade ground neutral. Accepted.
There was static, which was unusual. Then a voice stated: “Enter response for encryption key ranger-oblong-zero.”
Kael blinked. That was the encryption for ultra top-secret comms.
Even as a Major, he wasn’t typically cleared for it. That level of access was reserved for Commanders and the Admiralty.
Not something that would normally come his way.
“Kael-Veyne-Helios-emerald-nova-starfish.”
“Authenticated. Stand by.”
The screen blinked into unrelieved gray.
“Helios.” A low voice greeted him. “Sit.”
He obeyed, wary. This was a shadow call—be seen, but not seeing.
“Sir.”
The silence lingered. Kael could imagine the person at the other end studying him.
“Do you know who I am?” the voice asked. Low, probably male.
“No, Sir.”
“Good. Now, do you know why you’re talking to me?”
“No, Sir.”
A shorter silence.
“You’re talking to me, because I’m the person that reads all reports tagged GEO. I’m curious why you used it.”
Kael’s pulse kicked up a notch. He knew a threat when he heard it. And honesty was only safe play.
“Former Ghost Shade suggested I do so, Sir.”
“And do you always follow instructions from insane cult leaders, Helios?”
Kael winced before he could stop himself.
“No, Sir.”
“Glad to hear we managed to train that one out of you. But it does beg the question: why did you do so this time?”
Kael paused, sifted through his memories and impressions of Perdition.
“As you’ll see from my report, Sir, Shade’s knowledge of SID internal operations far surpassed what he could reasonably know.”
“You thought he was an asset?”
“No, Sir. Even Tethered, I don’t believe Shade could be controlled.”
An understatement of note.
“So, you think a leak.”
“Yes, Sir. I tagged the file GEO to see what or who appeared.”
More silence.
“And you found me. Congratulations, Helios. Do you think that I’m the leak?”
“I couldn’t say, Sir.”
“And that answer, Veyne, is why I green-lit your operation with Captain Raine. You take chances others won’t take. And you’re just insubordinate enough that she might respect you.”
There was no safe answer to that.
“Your impressions of the good Captain?”
The very slight irreverence in the man’s voice was tantalizingly familiar. Not in a way that said he’d met the man behind the voice, although it definitely reminded him of something or someone.
But he had no time to dwell on it.
“Unpredictable, but not erratic. Expert tactician. Best damn pilot I’ve ever seen.”
“Yes, I read that part. Not many people have survived punching out of the Fold directly into a planet’s atmo. In fact, your little hard landing brings the total to three. What else?”
He paused, cursed himself for revealing a weakness they could exploit. “Damaged, Sir.”
“Far more surprising if she weren’t, don’t you think?”
Not the response he was expecting.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Can she be repaired?”
“With respect, Sir, she’s not a Void-damned engine.”
This time the silence went on long enough that Kael wondered whether they had been cut off. But he sat, stock still, and waited.
“What are your next steps, Major?”
How far to push this?
“Honestly, Sir, I have no damn clue. Priority is to find Phantom, but there hasn’t been a sighting of him in several months. And with the deadline that Brandt has put down, it’s impossible to meet our other objectives.”
“What of the other two Ghosts?”
“There have been no signs of Geist in years, Sir, and Spirit is believed to be dead. Unless you have extra intel to share?”
The ghost of a chuckle echoed from the screen.
“Nothing to add there, Major. But I do have a tip for you on Phantom.”
Kael sat up straighter, “Yes, Sir?”
“You need to spend more time in the Fold, Major. You may not find him. But she will. If he doesn’t find her first.”
The comm cut off and the screen went blank.
Kael stared at the blank screen; fingers white-knuckled in his lap. Not moving. Not breathing.
What the fuck just happened?