Page 72 of The Commander

Sometimes Bastian even let them get back on board their shuttles alive. Sometimes not.

He anticipated Sarrian on the next shuttle because that’s just how Control functioned, always appearing when he least wanted to see them. His nerves buzzed with a thousand tiny alarms, each one yelling that his private P.I. conversations would be reviewed, if they hadn’t already been accessed. No matter. He wouldn’t be here when they arrived.

They knew he had Kitten. They knew about the extra name day blade that someone wanted hidden. They knew they had enough against Bastian to bend him to their will.

They didn’t know about the rebel prisoner Bastian had alive in Correction.

CHAPTER 24 - CARA

“What do you mean I need to pack?” Cara asked, rubbing at her eyes. She’d fallen asleep at some point while Bastian was gone. Sleeping heavier than she had since she’d lost her dad, as if she could trust the alien next to her, as if she liked his bed and found comfort there.

Bastian stood over her with his hands on his hips and an impatient frown on his mouth. Dressed in his gray and black uniform, with black suspenders and some kind of utility devices strapped to them. He looked like a high powered Corporate District President getting ready for a very hostile takeover.

The clothing fit him perfectly. Gray smoothed over his shoulders, the shirt tucked into his pants at his narrow waist, the belt there holding his big knife in a scabbard that he had strapped down to a meaty thigh. Her mind flickered at the sight.

“What?” she asked again.

“We are going on a trip. What do you need to pack?” He pointed to a travel soft case.

“A trip?” What time was it? Where had he been? What the hell was he talking about?

“Clothing, blankets? You seem to like a lot of covering.” He mused, pulling away the blanket that she had wrapped around herself.

Had she fallen asleep and woken up a hundred years in the past? How were they going on a trip? Did he mean a vacation? Sitting up, she tried to shake the confusion from her head.

The last thing she remembered was going through his cupboards, hunting for signs of anything sweet. Since he was the boss of everything, he should have the really good stuff in his apartments. She had no hope of fresh sweet cake, but sometimes the high density protein bars satisfied in a pinch, or there might be a sleeve of cookies or a packet of honey.

He should. He could. But the sweetest thing she found were two more jars of apple juice and vitamin tablets.

“You know what you need to be comfortable better than I do, Kitten. I need you to get up and pack a travel case. Take whatever you require. Clothing. Hygiene. Warmth.” He took her arm and urged her up out of the bed.

“Where are we going?”

“I have readied what I thought necessary.” He led her to a second open clamshell soft case on the floor filled with equipment and alien weaponry. Where had he been hiding that?

“Can I have the pulse gun?” She wasn’t sure if she could carry the thing. It was half her size, with a thick barrel made of bluish alien metal—it didn’t hurt to ask.

“Later.”

“Really?” She looked at his face. Still no smile. Was he serious or just saying that to appease her?

“Do you want me to choose what you should take?”

No.She didn’t want that. “Okay. Pack. What do I need? Food?”

She looked around the room and down the short hall in the direction of his kitchen.

She did not want to go without again.

“I have taken care of the food supplies.”

“Good. I’ll pack, but will you tell me what is going on?” She grabbed the blanket off the bed to fold it. It was temperature controlled—too valuable and useful to leave behind.

“While you have been sleeping, I have readied our departure from the base,” he said, as if that explained everything.

“That’s very cryptic and not an explanation. Where are we going and what are we doing?”

“We shall go correct Mister Danov, and I wish to meet that Andy you told me about. We will take food to your Brenda, so that your obligation to her is finished and you’re assured of her safety. We are going to an underground shelter in the area known to you as Old Kentucky.”

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