“I see,” Governor Stone said. “Two hundred years plus. How does she know military command still exists?”

  “You know, Sheriff,” Beth Stone said. “I almost wish Valentine had completed her research. She was dead, and she came back to life. We could have used something like that today.” Sam didn’t know how to respond to that, but she didn’t need to. The Governor’s wife kept talking. “I almost wish we had been turned into soldiers. Then we would be prepared for this. The people would be prepared for this. Or maybe we wouldn’t know what we were missing, not being human anymore. Maybe we wouldn’t feel the hurt and the pain. Maybe family would cease to have meaning to us.”

  “Beth, that’s enough,” Governor Stone said.

  “Think about it, Jackson. We could have been mindless tools. Considering where we are, don’t you think that would be better?”

  “I think bringing you was a bad idea. I’ll have the guards escort you back to—“

  “No. I’m staying. You promised I could be part of this. Don’t you dare go back on your word.”

  The Governor put up his hands in submission. “I wouldn’t think of it. The point is, Valentine could have focused her energy on helping the colony instead of running off to spy on the enemy. But her whole plan was idiotic to begin with.”

  Sam nodded, even though she didn’t completely agree with the statement. The idea of traveling to the planet where the Earth scientists believed the trife had originated wasn’t a terrible one on the surface. If they had sent a smaller ship with a platoon of Marines, they might have done well gathering intel and passing it back, and everyone on the Deliverance would be with the rest of humankind somewhere else.

  It was the desire for revenge, the need to strike back that had put all of them in this situation. That was the stupid part.

  “Governor, there’s a disconnected wire back here,” one of the guards said. They had finally gotten the panel dislodged, and were looking back at Stone for instruction.

  “Well, connect it,” Stone said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  The guard reached in and snapped the two wires together. The control panel lit up. Sam pointed to it, in case the Governor didn’t see it.

  “Beth, will you do the honors?” Stone said.

  His wife nodded and went to the panel. She tapped it, triggering the lift. The floor started to drop.

  “Ooh,” Beth said, smiling for the first time. “Here we go.”

  Chapter 32

  The lift continued to drop, carrying Sam, Governor Stone, Beth Stone and the six guards with it. The Governor’s face was red with excitement, the muscles around his mouth tense as if he was fighting to hold back his smile. Beth didn’t bother to hide her interest, her eyes wide and a grin splitting her face. The reaction made Sam uncomfortable. Laying eyes on the large military cache was exciting, but it seemed to her that either one or both of the Stones were also a little too eager to use it.

  The lights came on as the platform lowered into the space, illuminating the massive hold. Governor Stone spun in a circle, similar to how Sergeant Card had, taking in the vehicles and weapons, and the replicators and raw materials that would allow them to produce more.

  “Shit, Sheriff,” Beth said, nearly giggling. “You didn’t tell us it was this big.”

  “I told you it was enough to support an army,” Sam replied. “An army at least twenty-thousand strong.”

  “And we never knew this was down here,” Governor Stone said.

  “Someone did,” Sam said. “The wiring panel was hidden, and it was also bent out of shape like someone had been down here before. If you have weapons stashed in your mansion, there’s a good chance they originated here.”

  “I’ll concede to that logic,” Governor Stone said. “What happened in the past is in the past. Maybe it was my great grandpa. Maybe it was an even longer time ago than that. It’s here now, and it’s mine.”

  “Ours,” Beth said.

  “Ours,” Governor Stone corrected.

  The exchange made Sam’s skin crawl. Caleb had asked her to keep an eye on things because he didn’t trust the Governor. It was the reason she was here instead of with the Guardians.

  The Governor hopped off the platform before it finished dropping, helping Beth off. He started walking briskly through the armory, vanishing behind one of the APCs, while his wife went a different direction. Sam stayed with Governor Stone, tailing him as he let his eyes soak up the treasure.

  Beth screamed.

  Governor Stone’s head snapped up, and he spun around, glaring wildly at Sam before breaking into a run. Sam followed him, rushing to the source of the screams.

  Beth was with the guards. They were all standing over the husk of the dead trife.

  “What is that?” Governor Stone said.

  “It’s a xenotrife,” Sam replied. “One of the creatures that attacked Earth, and this ship. One of the aliens Sergeant Card was protecting us from.”

  The last sentence brought a return of the evil eye from Beth Stone.

  “Careful, Sheriff,” Governor Stone said.

  “You can’t deny that the Guardians did keep the city safe.”

  “Maybe at one time,” Beth said. “Before the enemy got to them.”

  So that was it? At least one of the Stones was convinced the Guardians were conspiring with the enemy from the beginning. She glanced at the Governor. “You have a take, don’t you, sir?”

  “If you mean I have a theory of what’s happening here, then yes,” Stone replied. “I think Sergeant Card sold out to the enemy. I think he and Doctor Valentine are working together. They didn’t develop the gene editing to start a war. They developed it to help the enemy finish one, in exchange for their safety and a position in the alien society.”

  Sam bit her tongue. And they said Valentine’s plan was stupid? “I don’t want to sound disloyal, sir, but that seems like a bit of a reach?”

  “Does it? You said Valentine confronted you down here. Why didn’t Card shoot her? Why didn’t she shoot him? He wanted me to lock her up. He told us she was rogue. But then he let her go?”

  “He went to help Private Flores.”

  “How long does it take to shoot someone, Sheriff? Do you remember when Card took your revolver and pulled the trigger at me? How long did that take? One second? Two?”

  “Except Valentine underwent the gene editing. She’s able to heal rapidly. It would take more than shooting her a few times.”

  “Knock her down, take her head. Card has that arm of his. I think he’s strong enough to do it. What do you think?”

  “Again, no disrespect intended, Governor, but you weren’t there. Valentine got the drop on me. He couldn’t shoot her without getting me killed.”

  “Then why didn’t she kill him and you? Two thorns out of her side, and she gets away clean.”

  Sam hesitated. She didn’t entirely know why Valentine hadn’t killed them. She certainly didn’t seem to have any qualms about killing people, and she definitely had no love for Caleb. “She gave her word she wouldn’t if he came out into the open.”

  Governor Stone and his wife both laughed. “Sheriff, I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were more observant than that.”

  “Honor?” Beth Stone said. “Sergeant Card has no honor, or my beautiful Orla would still be alive. And if Valentine had any honor, she wouldn’t have killed Doctor Brom.”

  Sam closed her mouth. There was nothing else she could say. Not without hurting her already shaky trust. “Yes, sir. Ma’am.”

  Beth softened with her agreement. “In any case, these things are disgusting.”

  “There are more of them,” Sam said. “A group of them survived, but they’re not like the others. They’re docile. Harmless.”

  “How would that be possible?” Governor Stone asked.

  “We think Valentine made them that way. Part of her experimentation.”

  “Where are they now?”

  “In one of the rooms out that way. Do you want to see them?”

  “No. Not right now. Sheriff, I want you to head back up to Law and tell Sheriff Zane to put a group together to come down here and start taking inventory. I want to know what we have down to the last bullet. Radio Joe King too. I want him to look at this stuff and make sure it’s all operational, or tell me what it needs to make it operational.”

  “Yes, sir,” Sam replied.

  “I have to admit. This is more extensive than I was able to visualize in my mind. I was expecting a couple hundred guns, maybe a drone or two. I had engineering working on getting the city buttoned-up again, but this is a game-changer.” He turned to his wife. “What do you think, my love?”

  She was smiling again. “Yes. This will do nicely.”

  Sam didn’t like the sound of that. “Governor, it seems like you already have some ideas of how you want to allocate these resources?”

  “I do,” Governor Stone said. “For starters, I want everyone in Law and all of my guards armed and armored. You were wearing it when Card knocked you down. I assume that means he taught you how to use it?”

  “It’s a relatively straightforward system, sir,” she replied. She was relieved that Stone’s priority was to start preparing the colony’s defense.

  “Good. Once that’s done, we’ll start drafting people from the colony. We only have about five hundred between law and my militia. I want at least five thousand within a month.”

  “Yes, Governor,” Sam agreed.

  “Second, I want Sheriff Zane to settle a forward operating position in the main hangar of the Deliverance. I also want guards posted at potential entry points, the way Card originally suggested. Since we’ll be expanding instead of tucking in, I’ll reassign Carol to focus on the comms again.”

  Sam couldn’t help but smile. She had expected multiple arguments to get the Governor to follow Caleb’s original plan. “That all sounds excellent, sir.”

  “Third, we need to get more people trained on the piloting simulator. There are still Daggers available in the secondary hangar, and I see a number of drones down here. We need people who can fly them so we can begin scouting our position. We also need to figure out how to get them from here to the main hangar. Joe can work on that too.”

  The Governor’s face was lighting up with each statement, his body language becoming more confident, his hand gestures more animated. Sam realized that until the Governor had seen the armory, he had been just another terrified colonist who wanted to run away and hide from the truth of their predicament. But she still wasn’t sure what he had been more afraid of. Having the city destroyed by aliens, or losing his grip on power.

  “Jackson, there’s one other thing,” Beth said forcefully. “Don’t forget it.”

  He looked at her and nodded. “Of course, love. I would never forget.” He turned his attention to Sam. “Sheriff Dante, I have a special assignment for you. I want you to be a leader in our new Deliverance Defense Force. The DDF for short. How does Colonel Dante sound to you?”

  Sam stared at the Governor, frozen in surprise. “You want me to be a soldier?”

  “I want you to be an officer. I want you to take an active role in the defense of our new home. You made a mistake with Card, but you and your family have been loyal servants to me and mine for a long time before that.”

  “Sir, I don’t know what to say.”

  “Thank you will suffice.”

  “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Do you mind if I ask, who is the General?”

  “I’ll be taking on the role of Governor-General,” Stone replied. “You’ll report directly to me. Our structure will be based on the military of our historical armed services, but adapted to ensure efficient operation and a clear and loyal chain of command.”

  Sam did her best to keep her face level. She understood the meaning of the words, even if Stone had danced around it. He was planning to continue his family’s dictatorship over Metro. Nothing was shocking about that. Only now he would have the guns and ammo to put down any dissent.

  At least he had made it clear what he was most afraid of.

  He had also proven that he still trusted her despite what she had done. A small part of her felt guilty for misleading him, but she was determined to do what she had to do to keep Metro safe. Right now, that meant following the Governor’s orders.

  “What are my orders, sir?” she asked.

  “I want you to take a team outside,” Governor Stone replied. “I want you to find Sergeant Card and his team, and I want you to kill them.”

  Chapter 33

  “How are you feeling, Wash?” Caleb asked.

  Washington flashed his thumb and smiled.

  “Good. What about you, Flores?”

  “I’m good, Sarge. A little tired.”

  “No pain?”

  “Negative.”

  Caleb’s eyes lingered on her face. He was tempted to ask her to show him her chest so he could see if the poison was spreading. But even if it were, what would he be able to do about it?

  “Are you okay, Sarge?” she asked, her eyes meeting his. “You spend so much time worrying about us. Who’s going to worry about you?”

  “I’m fine,” Caleb replied. “Thanks for asking.”

  They were all sitting, gathered in three of the drone pilot seats rotated toward the middle to face one another. The ADC had been on the move for two hours already, picking a slow route through the thick brush. They had covered at least forty kilometers, the Deliverance was well out of sight but hardly out of mind.

  He wondered how Sheriff Dante was holding up? Had she convinced the Governor to do the right thing?

  He stood and moved to the front of the ADC. Hal remained nearly motionless in the driver’s seat, palms still pressed against the dashboard, tendrils reaching through the material to the control systems beyond. The AI never blinked, and it would certainly never get tired. Caleb sat down in the seat next to it, looking out through the narrow plasti-glass transparency. The canopy above them was so thick it left the jungle floor shrouded in darkness, illuminated primarily by a variety of phosphorescent mosses and plants.

  “It’s beautiful,” Caleb said. Even in his narrow view of the world outside the ADC, he could see a range of light glowing shapes in an assortment of colors. He had been on a lot of missions to a lot of places on Earth. He didn’t think there was anything like this spot back home.

  Home. He shook the idea out of his head. In his mind, he had only been gone a week. It still felt like he was on a mission, deployed to some other part of the world. South America, maybe. He had to remind himself this was home now, as strange as it was.

  “It is interesting,” Hal replied. “Difficult to navigate and growing increasingly dense.”

  Caleb could tell. The ADC was pressing on through the vegetation, crumpling plants, tearing away vines and bouncing continually over roots. The trees were spaced enough for the vehicle to get between them, but the gap between trunks appeared to be closing.

  “How far to the mountains?” Caleb asked.

  “If we maintain this velocity, ninety-four hours.”

  “Four days?”

  “At this velocity. I am unsure if we will be able to remain in the vehicle for the extent of the journey. Assuming that the alternate intelligence started from its origin at the moment the Deliverance entered the atmosphere, and using the recorded speed of its components in seconds before I was taken offline, the estimated distance to the source is eight hundred kilometers.”

  “That’s not close.”

  “No. But it is also nowhere near as distant as it could be considering the circumference of this planet. The ship’s navigation system was programmed to set it down in a protected and resource-rich area within striking distance of an established civilization if any was found. No doubt the ship’s neural network identified the Axon structures we are heading toward and selected the river valley as the most optimal position from which to stage an assault.”

  “No doubt,” Caleb said. He glanced at the ADC’s sensor display. “Have you picked up any other life forms out here? Especially any sign of Valentine?”

  “Negative, Sarge. I have observed many smaller creatures scurrying out of the path of this vehicle, but otherwise the sensors are clear.”

  “So we came all the way from Earth to start a war, and nobody’s home except a lonely AI?”

  “That is yet to be determined.”

  “And Valentine vanished into the wind,” Caleb added. “There’s no way she’s moving faster on foot than we are in the ADC.”

  “If your assumption that she’s on foot is correct.”

  “Which it probably isn’t.”

  Caleb remembered the Daggers in the secondary hangar near the bow of the Deliverance. Their CUTS system made them relatively easy for anyone to fly so long as they didn’t need to make any sudden, unexpected movements. Had Riley taken one of the starfighters and flown away from the Deliverance?

  He slipped a small grin at the thought of the other AI’s quantum waveform shorting out the Dagger and sending her plummeting to the ground. The smile didn’t last. Even if she crashed, she would heal and be on her way.

  Caleb stared out the forward viewport in silence for a few more minutes. Then he rose and returned to the back of the vehicle. Washington had shifted position to lay his head against the back of the seat and was already out cold. Flores was still awake, entertaining herself by gently tapping her fingers together in alternating patterns.

  “You should follow Washington’s lead,” Caleb said, taking the seat beside her.

  “Are you kidding? I’m about ninety-five percent certain that the moment I close my eyes is the moment we get attacked.”

  “What makes you think we’re going to get attacked out here?”

  “Karma.”

  “Meaning what? That we deserve to get attacked?”

  “Personal karma.” She licked her lips and sighed. “I’m not a good Marine, Sarge.”

  “You could have fooled me. We wouldn’t be here without you.”