Page 62 of Warrior's Purpose

Hope took her hand and held it tight. It was probably a good thing, since she was entertaining thoughts of strangling the people in the front seat. It was a futile notion. They’d wreck, then another blacked-out SUV would scoop them up and they’d be back at square one. Still the violent impulse was riding her hard, making her tremble all over.

Ash, please be okay.

She stared out the window to distract herself, and recognized they were heading back to the Air Force base.

“Why did I assume we’d be going to some lone building in the middle of nowhere?” Hope snarked.

Abby snorted at the flippant comment and squeezed Hope’s hand tighter. Despite the wit, she could tell her sister was scared shitless. The feeling was mutual.

The SUV pulled in front of a nondescript building on base and a pair of soldiers unceremoniously pulled them out of the car. She tried to catch a glimpse of who was in the other SUV pulling up but they were swiftly ushered inside. The soldiers marched them past a bevy of stiff sober-faced guards and into an elevator. She could feel it descending into the bowels of God only knew what kind of hell.

“Are you taking us to see Dad?” she asked but Frank didn’t reply as they exited the cubicle.

The warren of halls beneath the base was daunting, but she tried to hold it together. They reached a long hall with several ominous doors and her tremors got worse, making it hard to walk.

“No!” Abby struggled as they tugged her one direction while Hope was taken another.

“Abby!” Hope cried.

“Frank, please,” she begged, but he just gave a stern shake of his head as he turned his back.

The soldier shoved her into a small room and slammed the metal door with a clang.

“Let me out. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

She tugged the knob and pounded on the door, but it was pointless. She turned slowly and eyed the room. It was a scene straight out of every horrible action movie; pale bland walls with a wide one-way mirror, bright lights, and a lone metal chair sitting in the center.

“Sit down, Miss Murray,” the voice barked through the speaker.

“I can hear you just fine,” she countered a bit more bravely than she honestly felt.

Abby knew it was wiser to cooperate, but all the emotions coursing through her were making it hard to think straight. Bile rose in her throat as she pictured Ash laying bloody on the ground or captured and dragged to another non-descript room. The notion of never seeing him again was crippling. Thoughts of her dad and sister made the nausea worse. The least of her fears was being forgotten in a place like this, but it flirted at the edge of her mind, taunting her. There was no way she could sit. Abby paced, otherwise she’d collapse and curl into a ball.

“Tell us everything from the beginning,” the voice demanded.

She glanced toward the speaker and tried to focus.

Pull your shit together.

She had to be smart and figure out what to do here. She could say nothing and not implicate herself any further in whatever they suspected.

I think this is a bit past that. They obviously saw you escape in a damn spaceship.

That was the trick; how much did they know? She didn’t want to risk Ash’s safety or the rest of her family. She closed her eyes, desperately trying to figure this out.

I’m not cutout for this shit. Oh, God. She repressed the threatening tears.

Her eyes opened slowly as something dawned on her. She was being very selfish. Her family never asked for any of this bullshit, but there was so much more at risk. Ash came to Earth to help protect her people. He risked his life for them. She had to stop fearing for herself, her family and even Ash.

“You are the Department of Defense, Advance Aerospace Threat Identification Division, aren’t you?” Abby squared her shoulders as she stared at the mirror.

“We will ask the questions."

She smiled wanly at whoever was on the other side of the mirror. This was how they did things. Their fear made them insist on controlling the situation no matter how deplorable the means. She had to work around that if anything was going to be accomplished here.

“I’ll assume that’s a yes considering everything that’s happened, Frank and my father’s connections,” she countered. “Well, every conversation begins somewhere, though you really take the cake with initiating these discussions,” she huffed, gathering her thoughts. “Unexpectedly, I find myself an ambassador.” Abby paused, thinking she heard the subtle release of air by whoever was on the other side of the microphone. “I’ve been made aware of a threat to our people and planet. Although that threat isn’t coming from the people you are currently hounding.”

“I fail to believe this. Several people have been injured in an attempt to make contact with these individuals.”

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