Page 73 of Chosen By Swift

I want Swift to come home.

She curled up on the couch and closed her eyes. If she couldn’t have him in real life, she could in her dreams.

Chapter Sixteen

Exhausted, Swift entered the secured room where their debriefing would take place. He had been away from Alys for eleven days. He was so close to seeing her again, touching her again, but he had to get through this meeting first.

“Come on,” Noble urged. “Take your seats. Let’s get this over with so you men can get out of here and get some rest.”

Once everyone was settled, Grim came to the front of the room and began to rattle off the details of their mission. Each man in the room had already submitted their own reports which would be compiled and edited to make the final and complete official report. Right now, Grim was rehashing the highlights and giving Noble and Keen a chance to ask questions.

“And where are the children now?” Noble asked, clearly concerned about the siblings.

“We were able to locate their mother on the Villanueva Colony. A DNA test confirmed parentage, and we handed the children over to her. The colony also accepted custody of the bodies of the dead crew.”

“Forensics?”

“We completed virtual autopsy scans on every member of the crew and did thorough collections of tissue, fluid and DNA.”

“Forensics should have the crew autopsy reports to me in ninety-six hours,” Keen said, glancing up from his tablet to Noble. “They’re going to get the pilot autopsies to us in forty-eight.”

“And you had no further trouble with the ship on the flight home?” Noble addressed Swift.

“No, sir. We ran a complete scan and breakdown of the ship’s systems. We removed wiring and suspicious switches and handed them over to forensics after we docked with theValiant.”

“And the cargo ship? Any problems with it on the flight back?”

Drift, clearly nervous about being in his first briefing, answered with a slight wobble to his voice. “No problems, sir. We isolated the communication system to prevent any malware on the ship from reaching out to enemy vessels.”

“Good.” Noble crossed his arms and leaned back against a desk. “We promised the shipping company we would return their ship when we’re done with it. Insurance regarding the pharmaceutical cargo,” he added with a grunt. “Did the children have anything useful to say?”

“They weren’t very talkative.” Grim frowned. “Swift, Hazard and Drift had better luck with them than we did.”

“Swift?” Noble asked.

“Everything they told me is in my report, sir. They woke up to shouting. Their father was on shift in the engineering section of the ship. They hid in a cupboard in their bunk and weren’t found. The girl eventually decided they needed to hide out of the way and convinced her brother to go up into the duct work with her. They would come out of the duct work only to get food or use the bathroom, but once they realized everyone was dead, they stayed put.”

“Until you boarded the ship,” Noble said.

“Yes, sir. She mentioned that they were sleeping when the ship powered up fully and went into hyperdrive. She thought it was the anti-theft programming her father had told her about, but she wasn’t sure.” Swift remembered the fear in her eyes as she explained everything to him. “Once the ship stopped again and we boarded, she wanted to see if we were there to help or not. Her brother slipped in the ducts and that’s why we heard them.”

“I suspect they saw and know more than they told us,” Grim interjected. “Unfortunately, we aren’t allowed to interrogate children.”

“Yes,” Noble replied dryly. “How very unfortunate.”

“We have our undercover operatives on Villanueva keeping an eye on the family,” Keen said. “Just in case the people who killed their father and our pilots decide to tie up loose ends.”

“Make sure they’re kept safe,” Noble ordered. “They’ve been through enough. The least we can do is make sure they get to grow up.”

The meeting continued for another half hour before it finally came to an end. Ready to get back to Alys, Swift was one of the first to his feet after they were dismissed. Before he could escape, Hazard called out, “Hey. Wait.”

“What?” Swift tried not to sound agitated, but the smirk on Hazard’s face told him he had failed. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I know you’re dying to get your bride back into bed.” Hazard withdrew something from his pocket—a small glimmering green card. “Here. Congratulations.”

Swift hesitated at the sight of the access card for a well-known and very expensive skyport resort. “Hazard, that’s too much.”

“Hardly.”

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