Chapter 21
Hound’s blow caught his cheek.
Kael staggered back a couple of steps, blinking away momentary disorientation.
So far, Hound was keeping the upper hand, but he was pulling his punches. They still hurt like hell, but it wasn’t good enough.
He rolled his neck. Spoke loud enough to be heard by the crowd.
“Come on, Hound. This is an Open Gauntlet challenge. There is no rank in this match. Stop holding back.”
Hound’s eyes narrowed, searching for the trap.
Kael opened his arms wide, chin lifted. A clean target.
“Come on, I’ll even give you one for free.”
Hound’s lips curled into a half smirk, and with barely a warning, he slammed his meaty fist into Kael’s midsection.
Kael tensed, rolled with the impact and landed on his feet two meters back.
Met the man’s eyes.
“Much better.”
He pulled his shirt off, heard the shocked curses and muttering as the crew saw his scars. Watched Hound’s eyes widen as the implications hit him.
That Major Kael Veyne had not always sat behind a desk.
Then Kael swept his legs out from under him, grabbed him and locked a forearm across Hound’s bicep like a vice. One savage twist, and Hound gave a strangled curse and tapped out.
Kael released him. The crowd cheered in appreciation.
He locked gaze with Wraith, who had made her way to the front of the mats. Her eyes were alive in a way they hadn’t been when he’d sparred with Shade.
“Too easy,” he roared. “Again.”
Hound pushed to his feet, humiliation and anger showing in every line of his body. He charged Kael, who waited for him, stepped aside and tripped him. Exactly mirroring the move that Wraith had used to take Spook down.
He caught a glimpse of her smile as he turned back to Hound.
There was no thought left in the man’s face. No tactics. None of the savvy that had gotten him to the rank of Lieutenant.
There was just the grunt. Looking to kill him.
This time, Kael let him get close. Parried punches, avoided kicks, played defensively until the big man reared back for a massive hit. Kael smiled and smashed an uppercut into his jaw.
Hound’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he crashed to the floor.
The crowd was silent.
Kael took his time to slowly look around the arena. His kept his stare cold. Accusing.
“Don’t you all have jobs to do?”
His voice was quiet, but it cleared the room faster than an evac alarm.
A couple of medics ran up to Hound.
He left them to it.
Wraith was waiting at the edge of the mats.
She handed him his shirt as he strolled up to her, satisfied he’d made his point.
“Good fight, Major. But I’m definitely going to let Shade know you were holding back on him.”
Wraith walked into the Eventide’s MedBay as if she had every right to be there. The med staff barely glanced at her.
“The Major isn’t here, Ma’am, we’ve released him already.”
A young doctor with an ensign’s stripe stepped up to her. She recognized the woman from the neural scans Patch insisted on after every Tunnel Inbetween.
“Thank you, Dr Rho, but the Major is not who I’m here to see.”
The woman nodded and stepped back. Clearly wanting to question further, but not willing to risk it.
Wraith briefly wondered what the rumor mill was saying about her and Helios that sparked the woman’s assumption.
She’d bet on scandalous or seditious.
Maybe she’d ask Patch later.
She stepped silently around a curtain, stood posed at the foot of the bed as Hound opened his eyes. His hands gripped the sheets as he reached for weapons that weren’t there.
She gave him her deranged smile—the one that had ended as many fights as it started—then let it drop like an executioner’s axe.
“I think it’s time we cleared the air, don’t you?”
Hound had pushed the bed up to a half-seated position, and if looks could kill then Wraith would need immediate resuscitation. Fortunately, they didn’t, so she pulled the single stool up next to him and sat.
She’d considered channeling Shade’s chaotic energy, but Kae—the Major had already done that.
Instead, she opted for a tack she’d rarely used even during the War.
Full military formality.
“Lieutenant Vorsk,” she said, her voice parade-ground precise, “while we’ve exchanged nods, we’ve never stood proper introductions. Captain Raine.”
The name was ashes on her tongue.
He nodded, slow and suspicious. “Ma’am.”
And he didn’t choke on it. Surprising.
“I need to understand just one thing, Lieutenant. Who did I kill that has you so hostile.”
“Are you ordering me to tell you? Ma’am.”
“Not at all, Lieutenant. But the more time I’ve spent on this ship, the more I’ve realized something. People know that I’m the Major’s pet traitor. But they don’t know the details.”
Void, even she didn’t know them. Not fully.
“But you know something. You’re tracking my team, after all, so you have some clearance. But your clearance isn’t high enough to know the details of why I was on that floating rock.”
The tightening around his eyes confirmed it. Good. That made the next bit simpler.
“Which means it’s personal for you. So, I’ll ask again, who did I kill?” The silence stretched. “And I’ll make it even easier. Tell me the details, and I’ll fill in the gaps where I can. One time offer.”
She didn’t have to wait long.
“Taurus Prime,” he spat.
That was interesting. That was before she became a Ghost. Way before.
“A hell hole if there ever was one. Who did I kill?
“My whole damn team.”
Wraith cocked her head at him. Resisted the urge to say Funny, you’d think I’d remember that.
“How?”
“We were sent in after you when you and your recon team dropped off the radar. S&R. Search and recover. It was a fucking suicide mission from the start.”
“I don’t disagree with you. But I am failing to see where I come in. I was green as grass when I was on Taurus Prime. Barely survived myself.”
“No shit. You lived because I pulled your unconscious ass out of that swamp.”
And that was information she’d never had before.
“Thank you.”
He frowned at her.
“But I’m still failing to see how a newly minted ensign took out your team.”
“Because you were the Void-damned mission. Eleven men died to pull out one inexperienced little girl”
He paused. “Captain.”
She laughed. She couldn’t help it.
“Vorsk, of all the things I did during the War, you’re holding a grudge for the one thing I had exactly zero control over?”
He stared at her, color rising in his cheeks.
“You said you’d fill in the blanks. Ma’am.”
“I did, Lieutenant. Although I doubt it will give you anything close to a complete picture.”
She leaned her head back, stared at the ceiling.
“Alright, here’s what I remember,” she started, even knowing that what she didn’t remember had given her nightmares for months.