He shook his head, wondering if she’d say anything else, but instead she ate. Methodically. Scoop, chew, swallow, and repeat.

  When they’d both finished, he waited. Well aware she wanted something from him. Likely not the same thing as I’d like.

  “Let’s take a walk. I need to clear my head a little, see what other aspects I’ve missed of this.” She shook her head, and he couldn’t help noticing the cloud of chocolate-colored silk which escaped the savagely taut ponytail on the top of her head.

  What has she discovered? Hopefully, she’d share all soon. He stood, and she followed suit.

  “Well, that was a meal experience,” she said.

  He trailed her to the front door. “Something like that,” he murmured.

  The girl cleaning the tables scurried forward as they left the building.

  “So, you wanted to tell me something,” he spoke carefully once they’d traveled a distance from earshot of others.

  “I discovered what the compound was. Have you ever heard of triacetone triperoxide?”

  “No, but judging from your concern, I’d say it’s dangerous, in the wrong hands, and potentially an issue for us?” He jammed his hands into his pockets.

  “You’re much quicker than you appear, Mann. But then, I should have known better given who you hung around with during the combat phase. This explosive is a compound that’s super-unstable and super-efficient at blowing stuff up. The only thing is, it’s also pretty close to undetectable, I think, from what I’ve been able to research. Jonah is organizing Maylin to get me onto the ultranet system without being networked to any of the other systems so I can delve deeper and get a better idea.”

  He held up a hand and stopped her, startled to realize she didn’t know what they already had in place. “We’ve already got one. I guess Jonah didn’t know because we skated under the radar. We arranged that before Liv… Before we found out she was basically an infiltrator and she nearly killed Erin.”

  “What?”

  Her startled glance informed him he’d somehow told her something she hadn’t been apprised of. “You did hear about the Liv situation, or were you on mission at the time?”

  Senna nodded, brows drawn close as if she were frustrated. “Yes, I know about Liv, but what do you mean infiltrator?”

  He sighed. How much to tell? Franklin cleared his throat. “Okay, so Liv, or LV-1 as was her designation, had pretty much free range after Jonah and Daniella took her under their wing. We were hoping she’d be the bridge between us and the kids we’d rescued. Seems she was a plant, and those in charge of the kids were sure we’d be unable to refuse her… I guess, citizenship.” His shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. “They probably thought we’d be weaker by giving into our emotions. So, Liv had full run and was basically a member of the family. She betrayed us, nearly killed Erin after pushing her down the stairs and after we became aware that she’d been hacking into the system. Sometime during all this, Maylin organized a bank of standalone units for us to research and run ID scans while we were looking into who was passing intel to the warrior children.”

  Her lips curved upward. “Franklin Mann, you’ve just made my day, and I could kiss you. Hell, hold on.” She reached over, clasping her hands on either side of his head, and her lips collided with his.

  The sound—a loud and echoing smack—started a slow burn began deep in his belly.

  Senna stilled, her eyes glinting in the half-light. “Well now, I didn’t expect that.” Instead of her robust voice, a husky quality had settled in its place.

  He harrumphed. The way his body responded wasn’t anything he’d planned to act on. “Well, it’s probably one of those things. Like eating in the mess.”

  But Senna didn’t laugh. Instead, she frowned. “Franklin, I’m not the kind of woman who believes in footloose behavior, but neither am I a saint who lives in isolation. That kiss was unusual. Under normal circumstances, I’d be keen to investigate any kind of opportunities that may arise, but clearly you’re not interested, so—”

  Now he sputtered. “I’m a simple man, Senna. What you see is exactly what you get. Hand-to-hand combat, sniper, and bodyguard. I’m not an officer, nor am I the kind of guy who—”

  “Mann, if I asked you straight out, are you a good soldier, you’d say yes, right?”

  The interruption stopped him in his tracks. He considered her words. “Yes.”

  “You follow orders, right?”

  Franklin couldn’t help but nod.

  “So why then, if I told you to list your best qualities, do I get the feeling you’d rather list your worst?”

  Now Franklin laughed, though it was somewhat strangled. “Because I’m not the man someone like you would—”

  “Someone like me?” Iciness chilled her tone, stopping him abruptly.

  He blinked slowly. Shit! I offended her. He closed his eyes, making a point to consider his words before speaking again. “I just meant, you’re gorgeous, bright, and clever. An arson investigator, while I’m nothing special.”

  Her eyes glinted. “I don’t like being told that my interest is flawed. I don’t care if you’re not sure you’re anything special. I trust my instincts. They’ve kept me alive for a long time.”

  Bitterness coated her words, and the chill he’d felt became a frigid blast, cutting right through to his guts.

  She continued. “It led me to the discovery of the triacetone triperoxide. It tells me you’re a good soldier and probably a nice person. What it didn’t tell me is that you’d duck rather than admit my interest in you is unwelcome. All you had to do is say ‘no thanks’.” Senna backed away, hands stretched out between them. “But hey, now I’ve learned my lesson and won’t bother you again.”

  How did that unravel so fast? His head spun, and he wanted to tell her it wasn’t that he was a coward, just pure truth, but in her eyes he saw a world of ice that now ran between them and decided he should keep his mouth shut.

  She spun on her heel, marched a couple of steps, then whirled back. “I’ll meet you at the commander’s office tomorrow at 0800 hours. And Mann? Don’t be late.”

  Senna stalked away, leaving Franklin wondering how she’d battered him black and blue with simple words.

  Back in her room, Senna sank onto the bed. Franklin Mann, she mused, had pushed buttons she’d forgotten about tonight, and she’d over-reacted. Big time. The thing was, she’d seen him in the past. He might be a huge chunk of a man, he’d also proved more than once that he could be soft and gentlemanly.

  “I guess that’s why I took the chance,” she muttered.

  She tore off her shirt, once more investigating the scars that crisscrossed her torso and shoulders. The scars she’d gained as a prisoner-of-war. The reason she’d left the military.

  The bottle of ointment she’d stashed on the table beside the bed had become part of her nightly routine, so Senna reached for it, twisted the lid off, squirted some into her hands, and rubbed it into the marred flesh.

  What would Franklin Mann make of these? Would he be disgusted and turn away, or would he ignore them? Even more, would he touch them, accept them as part of who she was?

  “Well, I probably won’t ever know now.” And that chilled her center in a way she’d been wholly unprepared for.

  Shucking the rest of her clothes, she pulled on the light cotton robe she preferred to sleep in, stashed her discarded uniform, and crawled into bed.

  Tomorrow was another day.

  CHAPTER 4

  Franklin Mann strode across the parade grounds, well aware he’d arrive dead on time, and snorted. “That’s a stupid thought.”

  He’d passed an indifferent night, wondering if there was some way he could soothe over the mess he’d made with Senna, so being up early, washing clothes and straightening his rooms kept him busy. Then he’d waited, impatiently, knowing precisely how long it took to cross the base to Jonah’s office.

  The whole time his mind had churned over the conversation from the night before. He had the greatest respect for Senna and found her attractive, but after that discussion, any hopes he may have harbored were well and truly dead. Not that he had any expectations they’d be any more than working partners—no matter what she said, he was still nowhere near her league—but if they were going to have to spend time together, then he needed to soothe her down.

  He knew exactly what that meant. He’d seen Michael with his sister and later Clarissa, enough to understand the politics of relationships, or at least on a cursory level.

  Shaking his head, he entered the building, marveling at how much restoration work had been done since the explosion here mere weeks ago.

  At the end of the corridor, Jonah was talking with a staffer, so he waited. When Jonah was done, Franklin advanced. “They’ve done a good job. You’d hardly know the building was attacked mere weeks ago.”

  “Yes. But we have a bigger problem. Is Senna here yet?” Jonah growled.

  Franklin kept his face passive, hoping Jonah wouldn’t notice the lack of enthusiasm for the meeting ahead. “I don’t think so.”

  Jonah squinted. “And what’s happened to make you button down, bro?”

  Franklin sighed. “Personal stuff.” He hoped it would throw Jonah off the scent.

  “Ah. Well, been there, done that. If you need advice…”

  “Thanks, man.” A surge of relief swept over him as the door opened and Senna stepped inside.

  “Good. Sorry I’m late, Jonah, I got a tag from someone in the arson squad who thought they’d heard I was, as he put it, ‘sniffing around’ the hospital. He was reminding me I’m still on suspension.” She screwed up her face, and Franklin had the feeling it was more than frustration that caused her reaction.

  “Ahh. You didn’t tell him—”

  “Fuck no, Jonah. What they don’t yet know won’t hurt them. But Franklin said last night that Maylin had an off-radar system. One that was used after the Liv incident.”

  Jonah winced, and Franklin read Senna’s surprise at the action, then her embarrassment.

  “Oh… Sorry,” she mumbled, a tide of red cresting her cheeks.

  Jonah sighed. “No. It’s right. She took us all in, and we should have been more careful. Are now. I didn’t know about the system, but if it’s already in place, we should utilize it. Where is it located?”

  “The infirmary lab,” Franklin answered, his gaze settled on the commander, looking for a hint that he’d been unbalanced by the reminder of his almost adopted daughter’s actions.

  “Ahhh… One of those? All right, how much time do you need, because this is tight. I’ve got the colony ship almost ready for launch. We’re going to need to bring in the families in the next couple of days, and it needs to be handled with strike precision.”

  Jonah turned away, rubbing a hand through his hair, and not for the first time, Franklin thought how the commanding of men seemed to be a perfect fit for his friend.

  “Depends what I can find today. I’ll need to drill down, then if I can find a sniffer, work out either how we can make one or scare something up.”

  “We’ve got three days before I need you ready for duty on the craft. We can’t afford for the children to get wind of it, so Franklin, get Maylin in on the process. I need the unit and searches cloaked. I want updates as soon as you have them, and since today is Monday, I’ll need you back here Wednesday morning 0600 for a briefing. That’s all I can give you, Senna. Franklin, you’re good to assist?”

  “Well, I—” He didn’t really want to, but Jonah was already nodding.

  “He’s perfect, Jonah. We’ll get out of your hair.” Senna turned and was through the door before Franklin could make his feet move.

  “Franklin? You could have your hands full there.”

  Franklin shrugged. “I don’t think I’d even get a chance. Things being what they are—”

  “Take it from your old pal, love makes crazy bedfellows, but it’s worth the shot.”

  Jonah turned and entered his office, leaving Franklin staring at the door. If only it were that easy.

  Senna stared at the machine. “This?”

  Maylin laughed, a tinkle. “I’ve tweaked it a little. And I’ve got some special software installed. All I need to know is your chosen search strings and voila!” The little Asian woman made a circle with her hands, but Senna simply gazed at her.

  The machine was ancient!

  Maylin growled, “Don’t look like that. What you see on the surface isn’t the same as what’s beneath the hood, you know. Now, first string.”

  Senna rattled off the selected words, then watched as Maylin entered them into a software program she’d never seen before. “Who wrote that?” She wondered aloud, and Maylin loosed another tinkle.

  “Me. After the Liv incident—”

  Senna groaned. “Why does Liv come up in every sentence?”

  Maylin settled down in the seat Senna had been avoiding. “You haven’t been as involved in the more personal aspects of the fight. I know you’re new to the team and all. Liv was Jonah and Daniella’s sort of adopted daughter. She was also one of the first to be found and repatriated—or so we thought. I think Clarissa was hopeful that a child with the bio-engineering and who’d been indoctrinated would be saveable.” Maylin punched some words into the computer as she explained the situation. “Daniella and Clarissa took it hard. I think they both had hopes that we could rehabilitate those they find. It just proved to them that you couldn’t trust these children.”

  Senna hadn’t realized how deep the commitment to Liv had been. Sure, she’d seen the child on the base, and Franklin had told her that it was a committed relationship from both adults involved, but she hadn’t really understood. At least, not until Maylin spelled it out like that.

  “Okay, so maybe I need to be more aware of what happened previously. What about Clarissa?” Senna asked. “She seems okay.”

  Maylin snorted. “She’s great, and you’ve probably worked out she’s had extensive cybe-therapy like Michael?”

  Senna nodded. “Yeah, you can’t miss that. Her shining eyes kind of give it away.”

  “She was an unwilling lab rat. Colvert, the guy who took her and experimented on her, was the owner of the fertility clinics they used to make the implanted embryos. She escaped, but he’d done a job on her. Like messed with her head and everything. I think there were even thoughts that Liv may have been cloned from Clarissa’s DNA or something similar.”

  Senna’s mouth dropped open. “Oh my God. And Michael? What does he say?”

  “Well, apart from the fact that Clarissa is perfect, if he’d been able to lay his hands on Colvert when they brought him in, there’d only be little pieces. But they needed him too much to be able to allow that. So instead, Colvert is being kept in a secured location. A classified location.” Maylin grinned, and not for the first time, Senna shivered at that action. This woman is downright scary!

  While Senna had been dealing with internal machination in the arson squad all this had been boiling away, and she hadn’t known anything. In fact, the very knowledge that Jonah had kept this from her hurt because they’d been such close friends before.

  “But you’re new. From the arson squad, right? What brought you to this place?” Maylin’s words dragged Senna’s concentration back to the matter in hand.

  Resting her gaze on Maylin, Senna considered the woman. She was a certified computer genius, but working with the military rather than the colony ships didn’t make a lot of sense. “So why are you here, Maylin? You could be making a fortune on the colony ship project.”

  “I like the intrigue and cut and thrust. Plus, the military gave me my start in computer tech. I owe them.”

  “Jonah needed my expertise, and at that time, the arson squad had some issues. I was the newest and the only female,” Senna offered in return for the candid answer from Maylin. “It’s still a patriarchal system in there, and I was unwelcome. The last case I worked on, someone tampered with my findings and I was hauled before the board. They claimed I’d made a mess of my investigation, which I hadn’t, but I was suspended indefinitely. The thing is, it was a case where I was dealing with—” Senna sucked in a deep breath, realization dawning. “Fuck me, I was dealing with the same compound.”

  Maylin jerked her way. “What? You need to advise Jonah.”

  “I will, just as soon as we see if there is anything useful on the ultranet.”

  A ping echoed, and Maylin swung back to the computer. “Take a look for yourself. I’ve had to dive through layers of security and encryption, but I think what you want is here.”

  Rolling the chairs to the right, Senna took up position at the screen. “Yeah, just what I need. Let’s open the file and—”

  Even as she reached out, Maylin swatted her hand away. “No. We access it through a re-routed system. If it’s got a self-destruct tag, which I’m expecting it to, not only will it destroy the file, but also send a targeted worm at us. Just let me…” Maylin tapped away, muttering to herself, then slid back. “There, now the page is loading.”

  And it did. “An optoelectronic nose?” Senna scrolled down the page. “Can we remotely save this?”

  When Maylin shook her head, she sighed.

  “Okay, so I need to write down—”

  Maylin laughed. “You can’t save, but we can print. Hang on.” She pressed another button, and the box behind her started the screech.

  “What the fuck?” Senna sprang up and marched over. “Paper? This is really old tech!”

  Maylin tinkled a laugh. “You’ll survive, Senna.”

  As the printout completed, she bit her lip, scanned the data. “Now I need specs on how to build one. Can you find them too?”

  Maylin rolled her eyes. “Need you ask?”

  Minutes passed as Senna waited patiently. Eventually, Maylin sat back with a grin, and the box behind them that had ceased its chatter began again. When it finished, Maylin scooped up the papers and thrust them at Senna, who glanced over them.