Page 39 of Alien Mercenary's Wife
This was dangerous territory. She should roll away, joke about her clumsiness, and restore the careful distance they'd maintained since she'd come aboard.
Instead, she studied the gold flecks in his eyes, and wondered what would happen if she lifted her head just a few inches and found out whether he tasted as good as he looked.
"Reese," he murmured, the rough growl of his voice doing things to her body that should have been illegal. Heat spiraled through her system. When was the last time someone had said her name like that?
Footsteps echoed in the corridor, growing louder as voices approached. T'Raal's head snapped up, and he rolled away from her with fluid grace. He rose to his feet and extended a hand to help her up.
"We should probably call it a day," he said, his voice carefully neutral even as heat and darkness simmered in his eyes.
"Probably," she agreed, her voice tight. "And thank you… For the techniques. For catching me."
He smiled down at her.
"Any time. That's what partners do."
T'Raal liftedhis mug and took a drink of Terran tea. He'd read about it in one of his books and had to try it. The galley's soft lighting cast familiar shadows across empty tables as he settled into his usual spot with the steaming mug and his comm unit. Ship's night cycle meant most of the crew had settled into their quarters hours ago, leaving the communal spaces quiet except for the Sprite's constant mechanical heartbeat.
Zero's face materialized on the small screen, his expression carrying the grim focus that meant serious business.
"Brought Reese up to speed earlier about the corporate network hunting her," he said without preamble. "Figured you should know what we're dealing with."
T'Raal leaned forward, setting the mug aside. "Talk to me."
"Anselm Corporation. Shadow organization with government contracts and unlimited funding. They own controlling interest in CosGen Biotech, which owns Nexus Dynamics—the bastards who made Reese's and Eris’s defective implants." Zero's words cut like steel. "They've been systematically eliminating lawsuit participants. Professional killers, not random accidents."
"How many dead?"
"Dozens that I can confirm. Probably more." Zero pulled up data streams on his console. "Car crashes where brake lines were cut. Equipment failures on maintained systems. Sudden heart attacks in healthy thirty-year-olds. All veterans who were part of Reese's class action."
Ice settled in T'Raal's stomach. "Professional cleanup."
"Yeah, but these aren't corporate security goons… they're specialists." Zero's expression darkened. "Same people who heldmy sister. They stripped her cybernetic neural pathways, studied them to develop technology like the Scorperio units."
"How's Jesh now?"
"She's good now, thanks. Took time to recover from what they did to her."
"How long did they have her?"
Zero's jaw tightened. "Years. She was in the same shuttle as me during the explosion that brought us to this universe. Since you found me in the wreckage years ago, they had her the whole time I was missing her." He looked down as he typed, his expression dark. "They experimented on her to reverse-engineer her neural networks." He paused, meeting T'Raal's eyes through the screen. "She survived because she's as stubborn as hell."
"So they perfected the neural pathway manipulation on her, then used that knowledge to create the Scorperio program?" T'Raal asked, scanning through the data-pack Zero had sent over to him. "And now they're eliminating the survivors who can testify that the implants were deliberately designed to fail."
The pieces clicked into place. "That's their endgame. Not just covering up defects, but eliminating everyone who can testify they knew about them."
"Exactly. The lawsuit was getting too close to court, so they escalated from accidents to direct action. That metro bombing? That was targeted." Zero's fingers drummed silently against his console. "They missed once. They won't miss again if we give them another shot."
"What kind of backing are we talking about?"
"Government contracts, political influence, the kind of funding that makes problems disappear at the highest levels." Zero's smile held no warmth. "But they're not invincible. They make mistakes, leave digital footprints. The trick is hitting them before they adapt."
"They know she's with us?"
"Probably. They had surveillance of the shuttle extraction. Got footage of Red on the ramp with that machine gun." Zero grinned, genuinely amused. "She looked like something out of one of the human action films. Rumors are going around on the human feeds about who and what she is."
T'Raal heard soft footsteps approaching down the corridor.
"Zero, I'll call you back," he said quietly. "Keep monitoring their feeds. I want to know if anything changes."
